It's all relative.

It is fairly cold here too. Just in time to be able to use my back deck as an extension of my refrigerator which is overflowing.
It seems as if we will have a white Christmas.

A different checkin procedure in Lisbon airport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhQJRtoLxc

Great, great, great.
I guess I have to travel to Lisbon at Christmas to see the show in person!!

Snow in Alentejo and other regions last weekend

... and the link is here: http://www.destak.pt/galeria/50440/3

Are you running out there to throw snowballs?

Not this time. I was in Vila Boim (Sogra's Inn) 23 years ago, and it was a lot of fun.

Is that the last time they had snow in the Alentejo?

Yes and no. It snows every year in Serra de Sao Mamede (Portalegre and Marvao region). It's much less frequent in Elvas and Vila Boim (birthplace of Mrs Loba and one of the places where the pictures were taken). In these towns is snowed the last time 4 years ago.
Snow in Lisbon is much less frequent. It's a twice a century event (unless the global cooling proofs to be right).
Young Lobo has a trauma, because he has never seen snow (unless in television). I guess I have to organize a trip to Serra da Estrela or Sierra Nevada (South Spain) to let him throw some snowballs.
My problem is that snow is cold. My ideal of winter is much more like watching TV and drinking hot chocolate.

My country is poorer today. Zeze Camarinha has retired of a long life career as a sex tourism promoter.
Mr Camarinha has self portrayed as the last Portuguese macho man, claims to have known (in biblical sense) over 2000 foreigner ladies and his "huting territory" was the Algarvian coast between Lagos and Faro.
He was suject to several national TV documentaries about endangered species.
But live must go on and his usage of broken English has afforded him to be the central figure in a commercial campaign (Wall St Institute of Languages). His mytical ice break approach is very popular today: "Hei lady, why don't you go the beach? You are very white".

Not very much is known about followers but a few years are necessary before somebody reaches the same status in a Portuguese or international stage.

If it happens to you to meet Mr Camarinha, you are free to ask him an autograph, but don't expect much more than that.

http://talktozeze.com/

I have escaped the snow in Pennsylvania for sunny Florida. Except it has not been too sunny until yesterday.
Mr. Sher is fishing as I write and I am catching up here at the local bookstore.
We have had more snow so far this year than I care for. I have seen it and if it does not snow again, I will be happy.

Carminho is the next big name of Fado, after (together with?) Joana Moura.

http://fado.com/index.php?option=com...id=618&lang=en

For some reason Mariza is best appreciated by foreigners.

Lobo, I really appreciate your fado tips. I did a "carminho" search on youtube and found a couple of beautiful sound tracks/videos. I liked this one a lot, it has pretty scenes of the Mouraria. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqKUE...eature=related By the way, what does "A Bia da Mouraria" mean? (I couldn't find the word "bia" in my online dictionary).

And I wonder if I can ask you a general question. Do these fado singers all draw on the same traditional repertoire or are the songs they sing written especially for them? Or is it a bit of both? I have heard the same song sung by Mariza and Joana Moura, for instance, but wonder whether their CDs tend to introduce new music as well. For instance, I saw some beautiful Carminho videos in which she was singing songs called Escrevi teu nome no vento and Amor marinheiro, and I wondered about where they came from. They are beautiful. As you can tell, I'm not at all an educated fado listener, just someone who finds that it really tugs at my soul.

Thanks, lobo. Laurie

Nice video. Lovely singing, too many stairs.

Bia is a short name for Maria used in some parts of Southern Portugal.

Na Mouraria só falam do namorico
A Bia namora o Chico, as conversas são iguais
Ai qualquer dia (Deus queira que isto não mude)
A Senhora da Saúde, vai ser pequena demais.

It's it a bit of both. Usualy singers mix some classics with songs of their own repertoire.

I'd like to call your attention to this stunning performance of Maria Teresa de Noronha.
By sociological reasons, some phenomena attract the attention of lower and upper ends of society and the disdain of the central ranks. This happened to fado up to the 50s of last century.
The mythical Severa, Amalia or Marceneiro came from very humble origins and the bas-fond style of fado suited then perfectly.
OTOH when ladies of the higher Portuguese social ranks as Maria Teresa de Noronha, Teresa Tarouca, Teresa Siqueira (Carminho's mother) started to sing themselves, a new style of fado was necessary, much more refined from a stylistic point of view (both music and poem). From this style I selected Fado do Castanheiro (fado of chestnut-tree).

This fado is a metaphor for the faithful love. If something is lost in translation, please let me know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRZPZI3elMA

Hi, Lobo,
Thanks so much for this information. The Castanheiro fado is beautiful, and it was great that they had the lyrics scrolling as she sang. I see what you mean about a more refined style of both singing and lyrics. Unfortunately, there is nothing of hers available on Amazon in the US, so that has to go on my list for the next trip to Portugal I guess.
Laurie

Portugal is like the curator's egg. It has some excellent parts. One of them is the local creativity. If fact, what's the point of making left diversion and right diversion signals, when only one of those can do the job?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MALG_k29gw...IMG_0819_2.jpg

On 16th February 1296, the Badajoz Convention was signed off by kings Afonso 3rd from Portugal and Alfonso 10th from Castilla, recognizing the sovereinity of the old kingdom of Algarve to the Portuguese crown.
That's why the Algarvians speak Portuguese (at least they claim they do).
In monuments and other public property is possible to find inscriptions saing "in this kingdom of Algarve..." dated as late as 19th century.
Any traveler driving the motorway from Lisbon the the south will notice that the transition from the rolling planes of Alentejo to the Algarve is composed of a kind of no man's land (a higly rough area, scarcely populated), where only adventurers and people in despair ventured for many centuries.
During many centuries, the only significant travels and trade from/to the Algarve were carried by sea route. During this period, the relations were far more intense between the Algarve and the neighbouring Mouslim countries of North Africa, than with Lisbon itself. This claim may be seen in aspects like architecture, where the Algarve has a distinct flavour when compairing with the other parts of Portugal.
The situation was dramaticaly changed by the end of 19th century when the train arrived the the Algarve. With this quick and safe transport media, the Algarve became much more integraded and the new roads and motorway (end of 20th century) did the remaining of the integration.