MUITA MERDA, §J§ !!!!

Once long ago, there was a young man in Portugal named Gil Vicente. When he wasn't learning to be a magnificent goldsmith, a sculptor of exquisite objects made of gold, he was also trying to write plays. Eventually he became the greatest and most admired dramatist in the Portuguese language.

But even Gil Vicente had to start somewhere.

Lately your benevolent blogger has been getting annoyed that §J§ da .pt has not been leaving his most interesting and valuable Comments.

Well, just moments before sending him to Brussels for a month on the Zeta Beam, I have discovered why he has been absent from Vleeptron. He has been rather busy.

Planet Vleeptron
is thrilled, delighted and proud to announce
the World Premier Performance
of the second play written by
João Silveira
"GODMA"
21:00 Sabado / Saturday 21 Maio / May 2005
Recreios da Amadora, Lisboa

If I had known a little sooner, and if I were rich, I would be there. (Free admission, by the way!)

But I don't mind waiting until, just a few years from now, "Godma" will be performed here, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, perhaps in the original Portuguese (we have a large Portuguese-speaking community), perhaps in English translation. I hope the Author comes along so SWMBO and I can meet him. Otherwise we'll meet him there and he can take us on a tour of Bairro Alto and we can all drink absinthe.

Anyway ... I have only one thing to say to §J§ :

MUITA MERDA!

In the English-language theater, it is considered Bad Luck to say "Good Luck!" before a performance. So instead, actors and actresses say to each other: BREAK A LEG!

Portuguese thespians have a similar tradition. Just before the curtain goes up, they say to each other: MUITA MERDA!

Literally, it means: a whole lotta shit.

Figuratively, it means: I hope everything that can go wrong with your endeavor does go wrong.

MUITA MERDA, §J§ !!!!
BREAK A LEG!!!!

Meanwhile, I am in possession of a quite striking poster for "GODMA," but the file is large and it cannot seem to fool my free image software into thinking it is a raw sausage. e-mail moi, see §J§'s opening-night poster.