Within a Sky Full of Earth

Birds don't wake me up
rays of light can barely touch my face
it's grey and foggy out there
thanks to miss humidity oh yeah!
7:25 and that's it
my alarm's
shouting and moaning
like a mad cow
my hand goes searching for the annoying device
grabs it and turns it off
please
just give me 10 more minutes
so I can kill myself back to sleep!
I look around my room
and wonder what can I do
to make it look like
the one Alice's been
yes,
there are times when I wish I was blonde enough
to forget the world
the past
the present
the future not yet born but already breathing
that's what I'm talking about,
the wonderland with no doubts!
oh yea,
there I am
dragging my legs getting ready for work
when I look in the mirror
all I see is a face with everything distorted
eye bags touching the sink
nose with boogies coming out
dry lips that haven't been kissed for a century!
hot water,
mr. hot water please
wash this old cranky lady away
let the wrinkles
the dark circles
play somewhere else!
there I go
leaving my legs to walk alone
getting dressed and crazy without a plan
for not being able to wear
what's inside me!
off I am to work
starting today's show
goodo morningo
and cheeeeese smiiiileeee
and yup! just run to the lift
'cause a big wave of people
is cascading towards me
trying to push in to the tiny lift
looking like sardines
yawning
smiling
but not living!
documents and more
waiting for me to caress them
ok, if that's what they want!
all I do
is to put my desire for holidays
back to the bin
and just get on with all these
A4 papers on my desk
while the lady marmalade next to me
keeps chatting on the phone
and the prima donna behind me keeps coughing on my head
oh yea
how I love all this!
hoorayyy is lunch time
everybody runs to the lift
as if aliens were after us
if they were
I'd be the first to ask them:
please abduct me
take my hand
look into my eye
and take me far away from here
from all these real monsters
and unidentifiable living objects...
I keep staring at the screen
not knowing what to do
with all my academic background
all I've got right now
is a desk and a stained chair
but not allowed to use my brain
'cause what we do is:
follow the rules
always the rules
pray for them if I can!
oopps, I almost forgot
isn't this the way most people make up for a living?
what about my dreams?
they are fading away
but I'm trying to fetch them back again
'cause honestly
this entire show is not getting any profit
bad actors everywhere
not knowing when to ditch their masks
not knowing when to forget the crappy scripts!
and I am
looking at the clock ticking and tacking
begging as loud as I can
in my head of course:
please move faster
quicker
make it 18:30!
off home I go
a place I can forget everything
and embrace love
as it should be!
it's time to move my feet up here
to my room
oh,
it's my room again
it's time to sleep
yes it is
here I am
remembering everything
cleaning my mask
so I can stick it up on my face
early in the morning
hoping for a better script tomorrow.

Oh I forgot to say I'm an exaggerator by nature...

There are things I will never forget!

Dias felizes eram aqueles em que os novos livros chegavam. Esta sensação era mais concreta, em pleno, nos primeiros tempos de vida. Nas primeiras experiências. Era um processo longo, que partia da escolha, da selecção deste ou daquele autor, desta ou aquela editora, e saber se era possível trazê-los. Mas quase que não existiam impossíveis. Trouxemos livros de todo o mundo. Os dias de espera depois da confirmação acabavam com uma carrinha azul com uma caixa uma caixa ou duas, por vezes tantas que não havia espaço na loja. Depois era a questão de qual abrir primeiro e adivinhar onde estava cada título. Sim, as encomendas tinham um remetente, por isso era fácil saber o que lá estava dentro. Mas não deixava de ser uma incógnita e uma aventura. E era um prazer a descoberta, um a um, um pequeno tesouro, como se cada um deles fizesse parte da nossa família e tivesse regressado de uma longa viagem. Era um longo abraço e era uma sensação que até hoje não sei explicar. Era essa paixão que nos fez continuar e que nos fez desejar tanto mais. Agora é difícil olhar para trás e pensar que tudo isso parece já um país distante!

No panorama de crise que despertou o início do ano é com bastante dificuldade que os mais variados projectos culturais garantem as condições necessárias para continuarem a respirar. É um claro efeito de bola de neve. Vem atrás do pânico generalizado face ao desenho de um futuro negro espalhado pelos jornais e televisões e que, quando se olha para o dia seguinte, se reflecte no estrito consumo de bens necessários, sem deixar margem para o que pode sempre ficar para outra altura. Muitas vezes os livros fazem parte desse capítulo de elementos supérfluos que são substituídos por outras decisões de primeira ordem. Com isto as notícias de editoras em dificuldades deixa de ser uma surpresa. Mais se o propósito inicial do projecto não é virado para o consumo fácil mas para o incentivo da leitura e do conhecimento, trazendo novos autores e verdadeiras pérolas da literatura.
É com bastante tristeza que recebemos as notícias do possível fecho da Campo das Letras e das dificuldades da Cavalo de Ferro para se manter à tona da água. A Bloom apostou, desde o seu início, nestas duas editoras para a concepção de um catálogo de livros de qualidade no território, o que acabou por se tornar um feito inédito, a presença das obras destas editoras em Macau. Desde o contacto inicial que fomos recebidos de braços abertos, a Bloom nos primeiros passos, vinda do nada, desconhecida do mundo livreiro, formando parceiros que apostassem também em nós, criando as condições necessárias para que pudéssemos trazer uma grande colecção de livros para este lado do planeta. A Cavalo de Ferro sempre teve um lugar de destaque no nosso espaço, com prateleiras feitas à medida dos seus livros e separados de todos os outros, a certa altura tivemos toda as suas obras publicadas que, a pouco e pouco, se foram esquivando com o sabor dos clientes. A Campo das Letras encontrou o seu espaço espalhada por todos os cantos da nossa loja, foi ela que nos trouxe o Rubem Fonseca e o Ryszard Kapuscinski, por exemplo, foi lá que encontrei um livro de Bento de Jesus Caraça, de quem o meu avô sempre me falava. Ou a fabulosa colecção de livros infantis, com uma aposta em novos ilustradores e em novas vias de fazer livros.
E isto tudo faz parte da nossa história, da maneira como nos fomos encontrando, procurando trazer algo de único para Macau. Algo que se encontra de momento congelado e em período de plena avaliação. Acreditamos em melhores dias para a Bloom. São também esses os votos, e um grande abraço, que aqui deixamos a estes projectos de referência que nos acompanharam desde sempre.

NOTÍCIAS ADJACENTES:
• CAMPO DAS LETRAS POR MANUEL JORGE MARMELO (via BLOGTAILORS)
• NA ENCRUZILHADA POR LUÍS FILIPE CRISTOVÃO (via BLOGTAILORS)
• FUNDAÇÃO AGOSTINHO FERNANDES COMPRA CAVALO DE FERRO
• NO CADEIRÃO VOLTAIRE

Don’t scream out now, from the faceless
A silent shout, no you shouldn’t
Stand, don’t you stand, don’t you stand in this crowd
Oh, don’t you stand, don’t you stand in this crowd
Clear cut and drowned, like it’s bleeding
Don’t make a sound, you know you couldn’t
Stand, don’t you stand, don’t you stand in this crowd
Oh, don’t you stand, don’t you stand in this crowd
Run where you can, while you can
Run where you can, while you can
Embracing time…
CARNIVÀLE BY KINEMATIC • 2007

People ask about my name. Where it comes from. I often don't tell and most of the times I keep quiet, trying to mumble some birdish sound in between my teeth. Then they ask me something else and forget it. Why should I tell anyway? Fuck them, I think, with all those stupid questions. Asking me 'who are you?' or even in the third person, all eyes trembling with a funny face, 'who the hell is Ring Joid?'
As soon as they start, when I'm sitting in front of them, they holding a pen or a sound device to record my voice, I drift away to a faraway land where I find myself driving in the middle of a field full of dry unharvested barley, the sun up high, me raving the engine of some four wheeler bike. And suddenly something else. Crows or other type of straight birds, a swimming pool, some nice girls around, a glass of lemonade. Then how can I pick up with the mind in front of me, searching for glory on some sentence I might tell?
"Hmm?", I say, completely out of mark. And then they repeat the same thing again and again and I take a full breath to keep it on focus for a while.
"Oh, my name...", I restart, sometimes I'm in a good mood, and holding my lemonade in one of my hands I say, "I got my name on this book, with this guy called Holden Caulfield, a kid, you know him, his eldest brother's favourite writer was Ring Lardner, and I don't know why, that flipped my mind."
The other part I don't know, even if they ask me with a hammer I can't tell. I think it was my parents or something. My mom Joy and my father Void. "I really can't tell", I add. Because I never knew my parents but that's what I believe. Or maybe it was the name of a train station or the brand of the tyres on my full roaring bike.
Sometimes I get some piece of paper and I write them the place where they can find something about it. Something like this. And they sort of get happy and turn off the tape and go home. That leaves me satisfied.
[IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET THE LINK]

The legendary editor Robert Giroux, who died Friday at the age of 94, worked closely throughout his career with literary giants including Robert Lowell, Flannery O’Connor, Jack Kerouac and Bernard Malamud. But there was one that got away. In his new book, “The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Publishers, Their Editors and Authors” (St. Martin’s Press), Al Silverman includes the following anecdote from Mr. Giroux, recounting how early in his career he lost the chance to publish “The Catcher in the Rye.” (The “Mr. Shawn” that J. D. Salinger mentions is The New Yorker’s editor at the time, William Shawn.)

I was eating a sandwich at my desk when our receptionist called. “Mr. Salinger is here,” she said, “and he wants to meet you.” I said: “Mr. Salinger? What’s his first name?” And she said, “Jerome, his name is Jerome.” I said, “Send him in.”

In he came. He was very tall, dark-haired, had a horse face. He was melancholy looking. It’s the truth — the first person I thought of when I saw him was Hamlet.

“Giroux,” he said. I said something like, “Right. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Salinger.”

“Giroux,” he said again. “Mr. Shawn has recommended you to me. But I want to tell you that to start me out it would be much better to publish my first novel instead of my stories.” I laughed, thinking, you want to be the publisher, you can have my seat. But I said, “I’m sure you’re right about that.” And I said, “I will publish your novel. Tell me about it.” He said, “Well, I can’t show it to you yet. It’s about half finished.” I said, “Well, let me be the publisher.” And he said yes, and we shook hands. ...

A year later a messenger came to the office with a package from Dorothy Olding, Salinger’s agent. ... There on the top page I read the title: “The Catcher in the Rye.” ...

I gave [my boss at Harcourt, Eugene Reynal] the book to read. He didn’t like it, didn’t understand it. He asked me, “Is this kid in the book supposed to be crazy?” ...“Gene,” I said, “I’ve shaken hands with this author. I agreed to publish this book.”

“Yes,” he said, “but, Bob, you’ve got to remember, we have a textbook department.” And I said, “What’s that got to do with it?” He said, “This is a book about a kid going to prep school.” So he sent it to the textbook people, who read it and said, “It’s not for us.”

I remember apologizing to Salinger. He said, “Ah, it’s O.K. I expect things like that. It happens.” Well, I never thought it would happen to me.
[FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES / 2007]

People ask the question, 'What's a RocknRolla?' and I tell 'em, we all like a bit of the good life; some of the money or the fame, but a real RocknRolla wants the whole lot.'

The thing with the films of Guy Ritchie is that, apart from all, everyone seems real. They're some real bastards pretending they are actors behaving like actors who pretend to be bad guys. RocknRolla (2008) is cool as Snatch was, a crime film full of shitheads, loaded with excitment and filled with great truculent dialogs. In the way you can travel to London and make as if you were there. And because in Macau you can never get the chance to choose a movie on the cinema, you just get what they give you, go and see it now! You can find it on DVD.

RocknRolla feels as if Ritchie is imitating his favourite director here, and that director is Guy Ritchie.
Sydney Morning Herald

Everything is so out of focus. This face seems distant. Distorted. Tormented. Aggravated. - she says.

How are you supposed to focus on yourself if you can't even recognize the real you? - he says.

All I'm longing for is to see beyond what your eyes are reflecting when you look into mine... - she says.

There's nothing beyond. Because it's been too long since we last crossed our eyes. - he says.

Then maybe we should go back to the start. - she whispers.

Decades ago, a cousin of mine one evening left his car in a multi-storey car park near a Manchester theatre where the English National Opera Company was soon to start a performance. When my cousin went to get his car to drive home he found a chorus of opera goers doing the same. Quite a few of them had started earlier than him. The car park's one exit, scores of cars, and the helical exit ramp inadequately serving six or more floors meant that getting to the fee kiosk took around half an hour.

When David's turn to pay came he saw that the fee was for over four hours' parking and he knew that his car had only stood three and three quarter hours on the space he was asked to pay for having occupied longer. (More than once, he's described the evening in detail and that point never changes.) David told the car park attendant that he thought the fee asked was mistaken and he said why he did. The attendant adhered to that tradition of British service that, in the seventies and eighties, gave National Car Parks' its unparalleled reputation. David sat in his Volvo - one of those big ones, often built as estate cars - and said something like, "If I'm going to be late because of poor egress [can't be his word but his point] arrangements have delayed my starting the 30-mile drive home then I'm going to pay for the parking I had, no more." Drivers behind the Volvo began to ask what had ended their slow progress. They did so in growing numbers - some with threats, others with offers to 'pay the difference.' David rehearsed his intention, ignored the threats, and declined the offers. The delayed drivers' frustrations grew. Sitting in his kiosk the attendant came to appreciate that it was less strong than the Volvo; he 'phoned for advice and began to negotiate. (Not all traditions are inviolable.) David said if he were given the home telephone number of the area manager for the car park company then he would pay for 'up to four hours' and leave. 'Knowing my cousin, he may have remarked that he'd had time to form a clear memory of the attendant's face. For sure, he got a 'phone number and, to less than happy acclaim, drove off. Home again, about one in the morning, he rang the 'phone number and heard a man whose voice suggested the call had awoken him. David established the man worked managing car parks. He went on to mention that on this night, which they were enjoying, an opera had been performed at the theatre near the car park he had used and he explained that, with many similar users having to pay before they could each drive their car away, to get from the parking spaces to the fee kiosk took long enough to increase parking charges asked. Increases that were, David said, clearly objectionable. The man seemed to think being awoken in the early hours was the same. Certainly, he asked did David know what time it was. David said he did, even mentioned the time, and added that if he had not been so delayed leaving the car park he would not have been 'phoning as he was. The upshot of these delays and alarms was that on opera nights an extra attendant was employed to pencil on each driver's car park tickets the time he, or she, drove from the floor where they had parked the vehicle they drove.

From a 2007 visit to my native country, which I left 27 years ago, and from having there, for 12 days, hired a car, I guess that if anybody, for more than one minute, nowadays halted a queue of cars leaving a city car park he, or she, would risk being thought a terror suspect and becoming subject to detention without charge for interrogation lasting up to 28 days - or is it now 42? (Unlike the Pope, on matters of faith, or car parking agents, on new ways to get more money, I could be wrong*.)

* "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken", is a plea Oliver Cromwell made, on 3rd August 1650, in a letter to the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland. Remembering it when I'm perplexed has often been of use to me; saying it to anybody supremely confident and yet incompetent has helped me, too.

Two years ago after lunch time with nobody watching and with no special happening, we opened our doors for business. Just like that. The birds were on the trees, people were coming out of the temple, the motorbikes from the shop in the corner were all there doing their job, shinning. That was the official opening day of Bloom * Creative Network, culminating a long process of bringing up a bookshop to town. It happened near the Inner Harbour, quite near of San Ma Lou and just in front of the big hole that would come to be the Ponte 16.
Well, Ponte 16 is still there, like a wall crawling upwards from the river banks. We're not. In between these two instants, the Opening in 2007 and Today, something happened. For a while a big hand of water was in the wrong moment in the wrong place. It was on the night of the 23rd of September last year. Suddenly reality gave a jump into fiction and from then till now we still can't differ one from another.
Did we have a bookstore in Hong Kung Miu Square? Did we sell books? Are we on the book business? What's Bloom anyway? Can't we remember? These are questions we can answer easily but in a way we can always tell that random response because now it just doesn't matter. We're out of the field. What matters is what will come next and we're still on the last lines of the period of disaster drawing the scratches of the whole new scenario. Fast and furious fiction passing on into a real frame again. Like the pages of a book that were just thorned aside. By water.
"What's next for Bloom?", you might ask.
First we have to deal with what we're doing in the present time when present time doesn't exist. Are we solving things? Are we on the way up? Are we back in town? The thing is that we still have a sattelite of what was left of Bloom enterprise. It's at Old Ladies House, now renamed Albergue. We called it Bloom Yellow, because of the colour of the building, but even that we've dismissed and we're there only on weekends or when the sun shines bright. But a sattelite without a planet to orbit what is it? Could be a ship adrift on the vast ocean of stars? An orphan crying for help? Perhaps a stray dog lost in the alleys of a city when it should be on the country side. Barely, we don't know.
We're on the future already and we have to wait for the world to rejoin. We're calling our strenghts to go forward and to push everyone aboard. Things changed and we're connected now to all the Natural Causes. Big things we want to do like helping to save the Planet. To enforce the endangerous blindness of our human fellows to come across on a different path. To be conscious and endure. This is not about books, or selling them, or about beautiful stories or some sort of miraculous creativity. This is not about Chinese, about Portuguese or English speaking commuters. It's not about the form. This is about us. This is about what's underneath and what's left of the Darwin evolution. It's not the economic crisis, this is much ahead. And what's in front of our eyes is a delightful Bloomland. This is the deal of our Nature and not about the gambling of what we are. We're not impaired or alone here. It's just the same flesh and blood. The same feet where you can put a pair of shoes. Even if we pretend by repeating the same acts everyday now, we're not kids anymore, we should've been grown-ups by now and we should step at the fore and not in the back.
That's what we stand for, to make a better place to live.
Today, the day of our second anniversary, we were not open. Neither on any colour. We loosened ourselves to the greener part of this land and we're just there making time flow. No candles, no sail. No one to watch. No special happenings. Just the birds, the dogs, the trees on the wind and the power of nature showing its force. And for this instant, day after day, we think everything will go on its place, sooner or later. But what's today if tomorrow's already gone?

Apart from all we'd like to thank you for your patience and apologize for all the flaws we might sourced. As soon as we stitch all the bits of our sail, Bloom 2.0 will come soon to an harbour near you. Don't need to tune it, we'll came just like that, as a natural cause.
[ON THE PHOTO BLOOM RED ONE YEAR AGO]

The House on Mango Street (1984) written by Sandra Cisneros is one example of contemporary Chicana literature that represents a feminist voice for Mexican-American women. Through the new experimental literary style, she expresses a series of Chicana problems in a male-dominated society, in which people value the idea of ‘machismo’ or the belief that men are superior to women in various aspects.

Although the feminist’s movement has emerged in the US since 1960s as a large group of women has been trying to fight against gender discrimination, it seems only liberal white middle-class women have been able to successfully challenge the power of male supremacy. On the other hand, women of colour, members of ethnic and working class minority, have been excluded from the social mainstream, and their problematic status as ‘the other’ has never evolved. Thus, Mexican-American women have not only struggled for equality with men in their own patriarchal society and the world at large, but they have also tried to find a way to be part of the white-dominated Women’s Movement.

As an ethnic writer from a Mexican-American community, Cisneros does not only create a unique ‘voice’ or what she calls ‘the suppressed voice’ of a Chicana, but she also drives forward a new literary form that is different from the ‘standard’ literary canon of male-writers.

In The House on Mango Street, instead of focusing on the protagonist, Esperanza, and her process of growing from adolescence to adulthood which can generally be found in most coming of age fictions or bildungsroman, Cineros dedicates many vignettes to the lives of other Chicanas on Mango Street through Esperanza’s point of view. As a result, readers can see the development of Esperanza’s self-discovery and self-definition as she narrates along her own stories. Also, her narrations of other female neighbours’ lives show how these powerless women, sharing the same misery in the oppressed society, have a major impact on her perception as a woman growing in a Mexican community. The relationship between Esperanza and these other women helps her, in a dramatic way, to understand herself, and it also motivates her to escape from the Chicano patriarchal society. Additionally, Cisneros’ poetic prose written in fragmentary forms do not only represent the fragmentation of the life of the protagonist who has to search for her identities, but also the way she breaks grammatical rules parallels how Esperanza breaks traditional roles, cultural norms and social expectations of Chicanas.

At the beginning of The House on Mango Street, Cisneros states “A las Mujeres” or “To the Women”, which implies that she dedicates her work to both female readers and Chicana women in Mexican-American society whose lives are portrayed in her fiction. With this assumption in place, Cineros, as a writer, bears in mind that her creativity together with the power of language can free women from the world of silence regardless of their ethnicity.

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros • VINTAGE • 1984

Lots of people always think about Phuket as a romantic getaway. Anyway, apart from beautiful beaches, Phuket old town is full of splendid old Sino-Portuguese buildings which I found very charming.

Lawrence was the name, the only one he staged. That's how everybody knew him. No surname, not a family story. Felt was his band and he was one of my cult heroes back in the 80's. Still is, I guess, in a different shape. From time to time I step across his work and for days I play all his songs again. In these occasions I try to check where he is and what he's doing. Nobody knows, as nobody knew before. He had a hard character but the music is timeless and life flies back and forth. 

Japanese comics have been famous in Thailand for a long time. High school girls enjoy reading love stories while the plots that most boys love to read are about sports and fighting.

O bom das estradas é que elas nos permitem ir até onde quisermos.

Reflexos sobre o pensamento exausto, sintomas de aléns memorizados no inconsciente, que eus? Que Deus Mulher de saias? Destino em vias travessas, ocasos e poréns de nós, panteras enterradas no jardim dos sonhos.

I will be
the first person in history
to die of boredom
and I will have as my epitaph
the second line of 'black ship in the harbour'
I'll rest this case
condemn my race
I'll stab a knife into the face
of any man who dares to oppose me
DECLARATION by FELT • POEM OF THE RIVER • 1987

astray
adverb
1 the shots went astray OFF TARGET, wide of the mark, awry, off course; amiss.
2 the older boys led him astray INTO WRONGDOING, into error, into sin, into iniquity, away from the straight and narrow, off the right course.

ARTIGO SOBRE HENRIQUE SENNA FERNANDES NA REVISTA BRASILEIRA BRAVO

Toca o telefone no escritório de advocacia do escritor macaense Henrique de Senna Fernandes. Chamada de São Paulo. Em Macau, ex-colônia portuguesa na Ásia e desde 1999 região administrativa especial da República Popular da China, os relógios estão no futuro — nesta época do ano, dez horas a mais em relação ao Brasil —, mas o idioma no qual se expressa o jornalista que procura pelo autor ficou no passado. "Can you speak in English?", pergunta do outro lado da linha, com voz constrangida e sotaque achinesado, uma assistente de Senna Fernandes, logo que ouve as primeiras palavras na língua da antiga metrópole.

O episódio reforça a ideia de que Senna Fernandes (1923) talvez represente o último capítulo de peso da história da literatura produzida em português no continente asiático — ou, ao menos, em Macau. Assim, a publicação no Brasil de dois livros do ficcionista, Nam Van (contos, 1978) e Amor e Dedinhos de Pé (romance, 1986), já constituiria, por si só, um acontecimento editorial. Há, no entanto, algo mais a sublinhar: a obra do autor é um paradigma da expressão identitária de Macau, moldada a partir da fricção entre as tradições portuguesa e chinesa, disso resultando uma "cultura de encontro". "O macaense é precisamente o produto do equilíbrio de várias culturas, entre as quais se destacam a portuguesa, a raiz, e a chinesa, o solo. Eu sempre quis mostrar essa possibilidade de duas culturas tão díspares encontrarem uma plataforma de entendimento e de adaptação, criando um mundo novo", explicou o escritor em entrevista a BRAVO.
[TOTALIDADE DO TEXTO AQUI] [FOTO BLOOMLAND.CN]

When I get there I close my eyes. There's still some road to drive, but from that little corner, from the set of those trees leading the curve, I don't need to see any further. I take my hands of the wheel, with my eyes completly shut, I let myself go. It's beautiful. I can hear the happiness of the birds. I can almost touch that home at the end. And I can feel my whole world apart becoming reunited. For a moment it seems just like a dream.
Then I open them again. My eyes. And that's when I crash.

You are still on time. Of the 500 limited copy edition there are a few available just for you.
Created in 1957, the Swiss-born Helvetica font has now become the most iconic typeface and more than a year after its 50th birthday, it continues to fascinate the world. The "Tribute to Typography - Helvetica, Past, Present and Future of the Typography" exhibition was organised at the Laforet Museum in Harajuku.
To celebrate this extraordinary font, Moleskine collaborated with the Helvetica foundation and acclaimed Japanese designers GROOVISIONS to create two special editions of the legendary notebooks (black and red). A limited edition of 500 of each notebooks will be available in very selected retailers in Asia and online at www.moleskineasia.com, to the pleasure of all fans of this legendary font. In Macau you can order it with us, just by throwing an email to Bloom.

HELVETICA • THE FONT
In 1957, Eduard Hoffman and Max Miedinger designed the sans-serif typeface "Helvetica" for movable metal type at Haas Type foundry, Switzerland.
This was first called "Neue Haas Grotesk", and then renamed "Helvetica", which is derived from "Confoederatio Helvetica" meaning Switzerland in Latin, in 1960. Since then, this typeface was diffused rapidly, being used for the Corporate Identities of public facilities and companies, etc., jacket designs of music albums, street displays, and posters.
Then, its derivatives increased, including the modified version "Helvetica Neue", in 1983. Helvetica has been cherished around the world as the most frequently-used typeface over the past half century, and is still outstandingly popular in the present age of digital typography. In Japan, this became a designated typeface for the first time at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, and used as a standard typeface at national events, including the Osaka Expo'70, and now is the unmatched one adopted for the Cls of firms, including JR, products, and fashion.

HELVETICA • THE MOVIE
Helvetica is an independent feature-length documentary film about typography and graphic design, centered around the typeface of the same name. Directed by Gary Hustwit, it was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957.
Its content consists of a history of the typeface interspersed with candid interviews with leading graphic and type designers, including Wim Crouwel, Michael Bierut, Erik Spiekermann, and Massimo Vignelli. The film aims to show Helvetica's beauty and ubiquity, and illuminate the personalities that are behind typefaces

Limited Edition of the "Tribute to Typography - Helvetica, Past, Present and Future of the Typography" exhibition

192 pages • 9x14cm • acid-free paper
Special Edition with Moleskine Hard Black Ruled Notebook.
Design by GROOVISIONS, with logos debossed on both covers, customised banderole and history of Helvetica printed on the backend page.
Limited Edition with 500pcs in Asia.

MOP$198.00 • ORDER NOW

It's dark. It's dark and wet in here. Everything seems chaotic. Hectic. Frantic. I can hear voices out there. Noises and anxious souls waiting out there. Thunders. No, don't drag me out. I want to stay here. Like I've always had. A turbulent move just pushed me to the ground. And now I feel the heat on my soaked body. I can barely open my eyes but I sense the rays of light around me. It's a bright and sunny day. And all I've got now is hope. Yes, hope.
Cesca

We cannot. So we're investing all our stakes straight on the future. That's where we're looking at.
- What's your business? - Someone would ask.
- Our business is the future!
That's the only way to be.

Cidade
Sem muros nem ameias
Gente igual por dentro
Gente igual por fora
Onde a folha da palma
afaga a cantaria
Cidade do homem
Não do lobo, mas irmão
Capital da alegria

Braço que dormes
nos braços do rio
Toma o fruto da terra
É teu a ti o deves
lança o teu desafio

Homem que olhas nos olhos
que não negas
o sorriso, a palavra forte e justa
Homem para quem
o nada disto custa
Será que existe
lá para os lados do oriente
Este rio, este rumo, esta gaivota
Que outro fumo deverei seguir
na minha rota?
por JOSÉ AFONSO

porquê mais água
se essa me sobeja
e a sede já passou
ESTIMA DE OLIVEIRA, 1996

One thing that Bloom is about is the intent to build a network of creative supplies. Today we come with a list of stage castings scheduled for this weeks, mainly in Hong Kong. If you are interested or know someone who might be just use the contacts bellow.
Thank you and good luck:

• ACTORS/MODELS WANTED [BANK TV COMMERCIAL]
The Film Factory is casting for a TVC. They require Hong Kong people or Asian looking talent.
1. BOSS - Male, age 40-50, Cantonese speaker.
2. AGENT - Male or Female, age 25-30, Cantonese speaker.
3. BANK STAFF - Female, age 20-30, Cantonese speaker
4. WAITER - Male, age 20-30
Casting Dates: 19-24 January, 2009
Contact: Apple
Email: casting@filmfactory.net
Ph: 9655 5514

• ACTORS WANTED [SHORT FILM]
This company is looking for two actors for an upcoming short film. The film is about internet romance, sex and virtual identity.
1. MALE - Chinese, age 30-35, average build.
2. FEMALE - Chinese, age 30-35, good body.
Auditions: After Chinese New Year
Email: kjacobs@cityu.edu.hk

• ACTORS/MODELS WANTED [BANK TV COMMERCIAL]
Such Films is casting for a TVC.
1. FATHER - Male, age 30+, Cantonese speaker.
2. KID - Male, age 5-7, Asian look.
3. LADY - Female, age 20-25, ABC/Asian look
4. MIDDLE AGE WOMAN - Female, age 45-60, Cantonese speaker
Contact: Candy
Email1: candy.f@suchfilms.com.hk
Email2: puiie29@gmail.com
Ph: 9426 4152

• FEMALE FILIPINO ACTOR WANTED [MOVIE]
Star Fantasy is looking for a female Filipino actor to play a Filipino maid.
Shooting Dates: End February, 2009

• CHILD FILIPINO ACTORS WANTED [MOVIES]
Star Fantasy is looking for a range of young Filipino's for various main and extra roles in upcoming movies.
1. BOYS & GIRLS - Age 5-8
2. GIRLS - Age 11-13
Shooting Dates: February & March, 2009
Contact: Keely Chow
Email: starfantasy@gmail.com
Ph: 9163 3376

• ACTORS WANTED [VIDEO GAME]
This company is looking for actors to play roles in a video game for release in the US.
1. ELSIE - Female, Caucasian, blonde, height 5' - 5'6", age 20-25, American accent, must be able to ice skate (martial arts training is a plus).
2. INES - Female, Chinese/Eurasian, height around 5 foot, age 20-25, American accent.
3. TOOTHBRUSH - Female, age 20-25, dark skinned, brunette, height around 5'7"+, Australian accent.
4. FRIDA - Male, age 20-25, Indian/Mexican/Middle Eastern, thin, American accent, height shorter that 5'11".
5. DICK - Male, age 20-25, Korean/Chinese/Japanese, overweight, height 6 foot+, American accent.
6. KING KONG - Male, age 40-50, Asian, tall, lean, American access (bald is a plus).
7. UNCLE S. - Male, age 30-50, dark skinned Asian/Indian, lean body.
8. PRIEST VEGETA - Male, age 20-30, Korean/Chinese/Japanese, average height, American accent.
9. GRANDMA LEUNG - Female, age 55+, short, Chinese, American accent.
10. SYDNEY OPERA - Male, age 30-40, blonde, average height, Australian accent, looks like Steve Irwin.
This job may span over the next few months or possibly year. Please send headshot and resume.
Audition Dates: End February, 2009
Email: matthew@uglyproductions.com

• ACTORS/MODELS WANTED [HEALTH DRINK TV COMMERCIAL]
A variety of actors are wanted in the following roles for a health drink TVC.
1. COLLEGE STUDENTS - Male and female.
2. YOUNG PARENTS
Casting Date: February 15, 2009
Shooting Date: Early March, 2009
Contact: Stephanie
Email: steph.casting@gmail.com
Phone: 9263 2355

• MALE ACTOR WANTED [WORDYBIRD THEATRE COMPANY]
This company is looking for a middle aged male actor of any nationality to play the role of Paul Sheldon in a stage version of 'Misery' by Stephen King.
Casting Date: 3 February, 2009.
Contact: Jodi
Email: briang@netvigator.com
Ph: 9193 6640

Go get them!

The Albergue opened officialy yesterday. Lights, sound, exhibitions, a fashion show, scheduled the event that started at 6 o'clock with a a mighty organization and a crowded audience. Among them many of the VIPs of Macau leaded by the Chief Executive, Edmund Ho. It was an effusive ocasion to glow a line of projects that are coming to this venue. The event marked the intention to grow to a new level. The potential is all there, we will see in the coming months what the future reserves for the whole space and for the district of St. Lazarus where creative industries pretend to flow.
For our part, Bloom is still displaced on the heart of its body. We're still walking and beating but through alleys and sideways. If there's the challenge to overcome for a new life, on a second and strong opportunity, on the same way we are faced for a huge operation that must be accomplished without scars and that needs certainty and consistency. We just want to clean everything, forget the past and start from ground zero onwards. Still today it's hard and painful to return to Bloom Red where the bones and remains of its destruction are completly visible. It's a nightmare on air going through weeks and weeks and we're tumbling down on the way to something that will come, but has time goes it gets more close to a dream then to anything else. We're hoping for the happy ending though.
Bloom Yellow is at Albergue, where the flashes went on. But even there we're faraway to engage on something solid, because we're still raining. Yellow is part of a rainbow and can't be made of shaded colors. We'll give it time. But we can't last forever on the side of un-definition.

Apart from all that, with or without us, Bloom wishes a long life and a great success to Albergue.
[PHOTO BY BLOOMLAND.CN | CLICK TO ZOOM IN]

Não se tem passado muito aqui por este lugar. Estamos meio absortos na esperança de uma resolução que possamos tocar com as mãos. Até lá é isto. Um céu. Um tempo. A terra que nos segura. Não existirá para sempre por baixo dos nossos pés.
Mas iremos voltar a este posto com mais regularidade muito em breve.

This is for Boys and Girls! You just need to bring your guts and come along with us. Where SPEED beats TIME in real life!Hey, are you a speed racer? Are you feeling cold this Winter? Are you sure? It doesn't matter if you're sure or note, what matters now is SPEED and TIME! Everyone knows that! You should also know.
So, while you're thinking, while you wait for something better later in the year, why not coming for a great afternoon in the depths of tarmac just outside the border of Macau. Yeah, it's in Gongbei, in China, across the main road of shops and bars, where they have these menus with everything for sale.
Meet up at the Border Macau/Zhuhai. Sunday afternoon at 2pm. Or send SMS to 66800024. Or look for Sergio Perez on the radar, he's the guy to beat!

PRICE: 120 RMB for 30 minutes (in periods of 10 minutes races.)
DAY: Sunday, 18 January 2009. 2 PM.
WHERE: Somewhere in Zhuhai City!! Follow us!
[CHECK HERE FOR THE GREEN HOUSE, is around there]

If you are looking for the best speaker system to pair with your mobile sound device, Zikmu is the choice to make.

Zikmu is the product of the association between the leader in wireless mobile telephony devices Parrot and the awarded designer Phillipe Starck. The system is a set of 2.5 feet tall speakers that use Bluetooth to communicate with each other. Thanks to Parrot's NXT technology they are able to relay sound 360° arround the room , using an extra-flat mebrane to create small-scale vibrations across the speakers' entire surface.

"We were not aiming to create just another speaker," says Philippe Starck. "Our design focused more on making the air vibrate. There is actually a three-dimensional feel to this vibration, meaning that the air is palpable, almost humanlike in presence, like a fragrance."

They're not around yet, you still have to wait untill Spring. In the meantime you can start to save your money because this combo will cost around 12 000 HK$ (1.500 US$). The good news is that you're not buying just an extreme sound quality for something you use everyday but also a work of art on a unique piece of design that you can always be proud, just for looking at. [SOURCE: ECOUSTICS]
• PRE-ORDER OR ASK A QUOTATION AT BLOOM BY THROWING US AN EMAIL.

MX-LIBRIS is a new kind of taxi vehicle for the Latin American region. With zero-emissions and an iconic form, it aims for a friendly urban appeal.

MX-LIBRIS is a zero-emissions vehicle incorporating a range of selected technologies from the transportation industry that are appropriate to the Latin American region. The vehicle has been specifically designed as a taxi, taking into consideration the cultural, urban transit, demographic and climate conditions of cities in Latin America. The use of technologies such as fuel cells and “drive-by-wire” make a more optimised use of space by replacing mechanical components with electronic ones and therefore providing more interior space. The vehicle is compact but high to facilitate access for passengers and driver.

The exterior design, which strictly follows its functionality, has been designed to intentionally become an icon of Latin America. Its asymmetric and sui-generis (or unique) form – moving away from typical car styling – make it a memorable object that locals and tourists will recognise as a forward-thinking icon, as opposed to a follower of car trends. The interior design, also asymmetric, responds to the functional needs of both passengers and driver. The interior layout maximises the use of space and promotes interaction between passengers by placing the fourth one facing the other three as well as leaving a central hallway for access.
In terms of sustainability, the design considers several aspects – from the no-emissions technologies to material selection and energy consumption. The aesthetic design does not follow either a sports or family car look because it deliberately aims to create a new segment of public transport with a friendly urban appeal.
[SOURCE RED-DOT]
• CREATED BY ZANIC DESIGN

Macau should just address the importance of these matters and help to create solutions to solve the serious problem of polution in the city. Build a MX-LIBRIS made in Macau, we have everything to learn with this project and use it to carry on, building a bright future. That's why BLOOM is here, to help creating better worlds. Come with us!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcoming the New Year, St. Paul's Corner is joining forces with you for the best expectations of 2009. A unique and great flavour to start the year to come. Forget the troubles and embrace the next year with a big smile full of good hopes. Are not the others who make it happen, who make it good or bad, it's you, you are the one in control! So... what are you waiting for? Make it shine! Make it big! Restart if needed! And Dance all night long!
Located on the heart of the most Famous Historical Landmark of Macau, the Corners Club, in collaboration with Bloom * Creative Network, invite you for a delightful evening of fun and joy. With live music, DJ's, Stand-up mike performances and a dance floor to twinkle the best beat on you. Don't miss it!

VENUE: St. Paul's Corner - The Corner's Club Rooftop Bar
ADDRESS: Travessa de S. Paulo 3,5 & 7
ORGANIZED BY: The Corners Club and Bloom * Creative Network
WITH: Beto Ritchie, DJ Kunming and Buds
DATE: 31st of December, 2008 - 10 pm
FEE: 80 MOP (60 MOP on advanced booking*) - Entrance + Countdown Champagne
* You can book your entrance by email: cornersclub@ymail.com or root@bloomland.cn / by phone SMS: (+853) 66821066 or (+853) 66800024 - stating your name and contact.

[MORE INFO AT: www.stpaulscorner.com and www.bloomland.cn]

A morte saiu à rua num dia assim
Naquele lugar sem nome para qualquer fim
Uma gota rubra sobre a calçada cai
E um rio de sangue de um peito aberto sai
O vento que dá nas canas do canavial
E a foice duma ceifeira de Portugal
O som da bigorna é como um clarim do céu
Vão dizendo em toda a parte o Pintor morreu

Teu sangue, Pintor, reclama outra morte igual
Só olho por olho e dente por dente vale
À lei assassina à morte que te matou
Teu corpo pertence à terra que te abraçou
Aqui te afirmamos dente por dente assim
Que um dia rirá melhor quem rirá por fim
Na curva da estrada há covas feitas no chão
E em todas florirão rosas de uma nação
[JOSÉ AFONSO • 1972 - TEMA DEDICADO AO POETA JOSÉ DIAS COELHO, ASSASSINADO PELA PIDE EM 19 DEZ 1961]

Fundação Oriente inaugura exposição fotográfica sobre Timor - verbas revertem a favor de projecto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável em Baucau, Timor-Leste

Uma exposição fotográfica sobre as gentes e paisagens de Timor-Leste vai estar patente na Galeria da Casa Garden da Fundação Oriente durante um mês, com inauguração marcada já para esta sexta-feira, dia 19, pelas 18:30. As fotografias de “Timor-Leste – Olhares Emergentes de uma Terra” são da autoria de Fernando Madeira, um conhecido fotógrafo de Macau e membro da associação “naTerra – Associação de Educação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável”.
Com esta mostra pretende-se angariar verbas para a próxima iniciativa da associação “naTerra”: “Raio de Sol – um projecto de sustentabilidade em Timor Leste”, em que o grupo se propõe a construir um Centro Comunitário de Educação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável em Baucau, contribuindo para que a população se torne mais auto-suficiente através do desenvolvimento de infra-estruturas, educação e partilha de competências. Conseguindo reunir as verbas necessárias, cinco dos elementos da associação partem para Timor em finais de Fevereiro do próximo ano.
“naTerra” é uma associação sem fins lucrativos que desenvolve projectos na área da Educação para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável. Fundada em Macau, surge da união de várias pessoas com o objectivo comum de criar soluções ecologicamente saudáveis, economicamente viáveis e socialmente justas, particularmente a nível comunitário.
A “naTerra” participou recentemente no Festival da Lusofonia apresentando, no Auditório do Carmo, o projecto “Raio de Sol” e uma colecção de fotografias de Timor. São estas fotografias que ficam agora à venda na Casa Garden até dia 19 de Janeiro de 2009. A exposição está aberta todos os dias entre as 10h00 e as 19h00. As receitas revertem inteiramente a favor do projecto “Raio de Sol”.
• Para mais informações consulte a página www.naterra.org ou contacte a associação através de info@naterra.org.
• Artigo no Hoje Macau, por José Manuel Simões, sobre este projecto.
[A presente exposição conta ainda com o patrocínio do Café Ou Mu]

A Japanese male actor is needed for an event on Jan 13 in Hong Kong, acting as a Chef. Performance duration around 15 minutes, costumes provided.
Please send photos, resume and expected salary to Chans Productirons here.

EVENTUAIS RECEITAS DA VENDA DA ACTUAL LOJA VÃO REVERTER PARA O IPOR
Novo modelo de Livraria Portuguesa
vai continuar a cumprir o seu papel

Parece cada vez mais certo que a actual Livraria Portuguesa tem os dias contados. Porém, o presidente da Fundação Oriente acredita que o novo modelo a criar poderá até trazer mais benefícios.

O que vai acontecer à Livraria Portuguesa?
Pode ser vendida, mas ainda não está vendida. E quando for vendida, vai para outro sítio, chama-se Livraria Portuguesa e é obrigada a comprar os livros que a outra livraria comprava ou até mais. Não há razão para se estar a fazer esta tempestade num copo de água.
António Falcão será o candidato natural?
Pode ser. É um dos candidatos certamente – é o candidato com quem nós conversámos sobre o assunto.
Qual seria o modelo a adoptar?
Seria a Livraria Portuguesa manter-se e depois juntar a vertente “Bloom”, que também faz sentido.
E manter-se no antigo albergue da Santa Casa da Misericórdia?
Não, num outro sítio. Fui ver dois edifícios agora. O local seria alugado e o IPOR ajudaria no arranque.
O IPOR contribuiria com os seus livros?
O IPOR tem um “stock” próprio grande. Poderia entrar com esse “stock” na livraria. Haveria uma concessão que se mantinha, em moldes um pouco diferentes, porque iríamos exigir da parte do futuro concessionário que também participasse no investimento. Iríamos fazer uma livraria de raiz, o que tem custos. No primeiro ano, o IPOR daria um contributo.
E o dinheiro da venda das actuais instalações?
Seria destinado ao fundo do IPOR.
Como responde a quem diz que a cultura não é como os hambúrgueres e que uma entidade como a Livraria Portuguesa tem que ter a suportá-la uma instituição sem fins lucrativos?
Há [essa instituição] e continuará a haver. Qual é a diferença entre estar ali naquele cantinho ou a cinco minutos a pé do Leal Senado, onde é um dos locais que fomos ver? É um prédio inteiro, com quatro ou cinco andares, que tem espaço que poderia servir para exposições. De resto, esse é outro ponto a que também já respondi: a Casa Garden já foi colocada à disposição para esse tipo de eventos, bem como o auditório do IPOR.
A nova livraria continuaria a cumprir o seu papel nestes moldes?
Sim, porque podemos ter a componente portuguesa – que será sempre a maior –, e depois somar-lhe a vertente inglesa e a chinesa. A Livraria Portuguesa antes era uma fonte de despesa muito grande para o IPOR e deixou de sê-lo com a actual concessão. Mas o que mais me interessava não era o capítulo financeiro: é que existisse uma livraria em Macau que tivesse os manuais escolares e as últimas obras editadas em Portugal. Julgo que isso foi conseguido, embora há quem diga que não. Isso vai continuar a ser conseguido com o novo modelo e eventualmente de forma melhor – por isso é que se muda.
[POR EMANUEL GRAÇA • JORNAL TRIBUNA DE MACAU • 11 DEZ 2008]

A Bloom esteve presente na Feira do Livro da Escola Portuguesa de Macau, que decorreu nos dias de ontem e hoje, no átrio da escola. Com alguma afluência e alguns livros vendidos, o gosto de participar é sempre maior do que as intenções comerciais. Neste caso teria sido mais proveitoso estender a data da Feira e juntá-la ao dia da festa de Natal, em que os familiares dos estudantes estarão presentes com mais tempo e sem pressas, o que acontecerá amanhã. Voltaremos para o ano, no Dia Mundial da Criança. Obrigado.

[...] In regards to the Portuguese Bookshop, which the Orient Foundation announced last month it was planning on selling, Monjardino said the decision had not be made solely by the Foundation.
“The same as with the decision of [relocating] the Portuguese School [to the former Estoril Hotel, opposite Tap Seac Square], it is not the Foundation who makes them,” Monjardino said, adding that such decisions were made by general assemblies of the institutions involved. And even though the Foundation has some take in it, it a “minority,” whereas the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Portugal deals with decisions regarding IPOR, a Portuguese Institute from the Orient, while the Ministry of Education in Portugal deals with issues relating to the Portuguese School.
However, what is being sold is not the bookshop itself, but the premises where the current bookshop is together with the first floor of the building.
“The bookshop will continue existing, and will continue being called the 'Portuguese Bookshop of Macau' slash the name of the other person who will manage the bookshop and is more specialised – if it ends up being him managing the store – in English-language books,” Monjardino said, adding that he thinks both English and Portuguese-language books should be sold in the same space.
“If this is done [having this person manage the bookshop], it will still be located within the city centre,” the president of the Foundation added.
Although no names were mentioned, the Macau Daily Times understands that the person in question is António Falcão, who managed the English-language bookstore Bloom, which was completed flooded when typhoon Hagupit hit the SAR in late September.
Falcão met yesterday morning with Monjardino, who was also scheduled to visit three premises yesterday afternoon with the unnamed person, in order to see which would be a more viable location for the Portuguese Bookshop.
“We will finance the space. We will help support the installation of the new bookshop and during a certain period of time, we will help with the rent and redecorate the building to have a 'proper' look,” the president of the Foundation said.
The new bookshop is also set to house the same sort of features, including an art gallery. [...]
SARA FARR • MACAU DAILY TIMES • 11 DEC 2008

For now we just want to add that Bloom is not only an "English-language" bookshop. From the beginning we are a multi-language project, mostly focused on Portuguese and English books.

This was the result of my creative writing exercise on Shirley Lim's workshop. After a process of relaxation, the idea was to bring back a distant smell from the depths of your memory. Writing freely without stopping for a few minutes.

It was the house. The view. As if you could smell the view. The floor, not the scent of the floor, but the touch as a smelly little torture. The doors. The walking in. The ring bell. The summer. The smile of the face that would walk you in. The face that is just a memory, ageless in time, as now and forever. The room inside. The weight of your jacket that was about to be put asside. Thorned. And then someone was there. Rich, perfect, beautiful. And that person was all hands. Hands lighting up a cigarette. Matches probably. Or a cigarette that would be lighten up by itself, just like that, with those magic hands. Hands that would flow to the pages of a book or so many books placed on the shelfs of the wall. And then he would hold his head in an endless thought. Endless in time. Through the steps of the memory.
But the smell was the smoke. The smoke all over the place, unnoticeable. Like the smoke of a gun that is about to blow your head. Smoking coming in and out, invisible, just targeting your eyes sleepless into your rememberings.
The hands that hold the cigarette, yes. And the smoke that from the truth was not really there.

Doet Boersma is a dutch artist who steps into Asia for the first time showind and presenting the project "Hong Kong Impressions". Having an inspiring time as an artist-in-residence at aco_air in Hong Kong, she converted all her impressions, meetings and feelings about HK into drawings on packaging papers dumped by offices around her studio at Fotanian, and also on rice papers and canvases. They show the atmosphere, intimacy and loneliness of being a passer-by in HK. In the talk, she will explain how she transformed her impressions into the artworks. and she will explain the differences between her former experiences as an artist-in-residence in Ireland and here in Hong Kong.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Doet Boersma finished Art Academy in 1985 and worked years as a drawing and painting teacher in secundary school and vocational school. Since 1991 she founded her own painting school It Frysk Skildershûs, where now are teaching 12-15 artists. Since the late eighties she used more and more time for her own artistic career. Different themes passed, but landscapes were always the most important. In the landscapes, she could show her passions of light, directions, atmosphere and colour.
She painted in Italy, Portugal and France, worked in the European Academy in Trier, Germany (2006), had an artistic residency in Ireland (2006). And in Hong Kong, she had a residency for 6 weeks, painting Hong Kong impressions of streetmarkets and people in the street. The materials changed from canvas to rice-paper.

Hong Kong is a total different residency than I had before, because of the totally different culture and small spaces", she commented.

Doet is exhibiting in different countries in Europe.

Papoilas. Lírios. Rosas. Brincos-de-princesa.
Lembro-me de cheiros diferentes que se misturavam, tornando-se impossível distinguir. Cheiros que me invadiam enquanto circulava por diferentes jardins e parques em busca do conjunto de flores perfeitas.
O meu pai perguntava: "Estas servem?" Aproximava-me lentamente, absorvia o aroma, observava a cor, o formato e a textura. "Sim, servem", respondia, dependendo da sensação que me causassem.
No fim do dia, tinha conseguido reunir cheiros doces, frescos, acres, todos no meu caderno. Orgulhosa, entreguei-o à professora, com a sensação de dever cumprido.
Claro que, com o passar do tempo, os cheiros daquele caderno alteraram-se, mas, na minha memória, permanece o aroma daqueles campos abertos cheios de flores. Como se fosse o espelho da minha infância.
Luciana Leitão • Jornalista