Hugo, Claudio & I have been friends for nearly 20 years.  As a child, Hugo had an dream that, without going into detail, prevented him from ever visiting the state of California.  When Claudio moved here last year, we both lamented the fact that our good friend would not be able to visit us here.  Fast forward to Thursday, when Hugo bravely flew from New York to Los Angeles, to help me and Claudio celebrate our birthdays; and a new tradition began.  Then Friday, Marcelo & Emily flew in from Portland and we headed up to Ventura County where we had a big Brazilian barbecue with Eva & Bassam in attendance.  Later tonight we head to the Hollywood Bowl for the Rodger’s & Hammerstein spectacular.  I’ll let the videos and pictures speak for themselves.  Ciao!

We made it through the Alps in Youenn’s little car!  I must admit, I had my reservations:

…but the trip was breathtakingly beautiful.  I’ve done it a few times now and the scenery never gets old.  The weather was gorgeous most of the way through Florence and all of Italy.  We hit an awesome storm in Austria, but emerged to blue skies soon enough:

Click for full size

We’re in Munich now, staying with Mick & Miggl and I must admit it’s nice to have high speed Internet again and a long hot shower (the beach house’s hot water didn’t last long with 20+ people staying there!).  It’s unseasonably cool in Bavaria, but feels good after the heat and humidity of Italy.  Today Alan and I headed to the Marienplatz to buy him an iPod Touch.  His poor wife Bine is about to become an iPod widow.  Boys and their toys!  Tomorrow we will spend the day visiting Mick & Bine’s families and get to see Tom, Cathy & Patrick who just arrived from San Francisco.  I’m looking forward to seeing them all.

Miggl prepared an amazing dinner for us upon our arrival in Munich.

The girls made paella for lunch.

And we had yet another delicious meal together!

Mick’s aunt, the soccer playing nun, even stopped by from her Swiss mountain abbey and brought Toblerone!

 
It’s Gay Pride in Munich this weekend.

Mick’s 68 Beetle is still going strong!  Here I am reenacting the time I had to push it at the World Cup three years ago.

 

 

Say gute nacht Carey!

Best of the rest…

The copious tradition of Indian theatre boasts the rich folklores of India. Indian drama is as old as the Indian convention and has its rich history deeply associated with the Vedic Era. In the ancient days drama or plays were mainly an illustration of the Vedic ritualism and were mainly manifested amidst the artistry of “mudraa”, Lasya” and Natya.  However, the change came after the gothic period;   the “larger than life” aspects of the Sanskrit dramas were rationalized. The depiction of the ancient Gods, mythological characters and celestial beings were for the first time mellowed out. That was the very beginning of the new form in the Indian theatre, which gained a marked diction during and after Indian independence. Indian theatre witnessed all the major production during this time, which not only marked the change in Indian Natya but also carved it as an art form to illustrate the naturalistic and realistic facets of daily life. The timeline of Indian theatre unfolds the verity that all the major productions in Indian theatre did occur during and after the British Rule. Theatre was then the weapon of protest against British colonialism and quite ideally therefore all the major productions in Indian theatre portrays the pain, agony and frustration of the common people during British Raj. Theatre was then just not a media for entertainment but was lot more. The Major productions in Indian theatre after independence further became the exemplifications of the socio-political and economic conditions of independent India. The leftist movement, the political scenario, the burning questions of unemployment all found an answer in the varied productions of Indian theatre after independence.

Evam Indrajit (Is Nirmal Normal?):
One of the major productions in Indian theatre, “Evam Indrajit” (“Is Nirmal Normal”) is the eloquent projection of fears, tears and frustration of the cultured bourgeoisie of the early 60s. The term “crisis” finds an articulate diction in the play where the melancholic existentialism of an individual weaves the magical plot in the play. Indian drama gained the most modish dash amidst the artistic presentation of Evam Indrajit. Although the play comes to an end yet it leaves a questions to which there are hardly any answers.  With its artistic articulation and with its burning questions Evam Indrajit is reckoned as a milestone in the history of modern theatre in India.  Source:  Indianet Zone.

Joelle and I were lucky enough to see one of only 2 performance of this masterful play in Santa Barbara this past weekend because our friend Eva was one of the stars.  She was utterly brilliant, as were all of her castmates!  Here’s the message I sent out to our “GLY” mail group Sunday:

Carey Anthony

Move over Angelina.  Head for the hills Meryl!  There’s a new actress taking Hollywood by storm and her name is Eva!  The LA Times called her performance “riveting”.  The Hollywood Reporter says, “Eva is an ingenue for the new millennium.  Her raw unbridled passion oozes through ever pore of her electrifying essence!!”  But don’t take my word for it!  See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFPxzHD-U8 and for those of you not on Facebook, see the spectacular stills here:
http://careygly.smugmug.com/gallery/8481606_TTJ8e/#557820789_QL7Xh

–Carey–

A sample of Eva’s breathtaking performance, with fellow actor Jason.

From the sun roof on the way to Santa Barbara.

Brunch before the show!

Manasi & Indrajit share a tender moment.

And the Academy Award for best actress goes to…

Chazz & Joelle in front of Claudio & Ryan’s house. We checked up on it while they’re in Brazil.

Best of the rest…

No, for once the title of this blog is not referring to Sarah Palin (though it’s an apt description).  “The Devil With Boobs” is a play, written by  Dario Fo.  He’s an Italian satirist and playwright who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 and in 2007 he was ranked joint seventh with Stephen Hawking in The Telegraph‘s list of 100 greatest living geniuses.  I went to see the show with Carolina & Bill on Friday night.  I was warned that the humor was “scatological” in nature, and I must say, that was an understatement!

Broadway World opines, “In THE DEVIL WITH BOOBS, Sub-Devil First Class Barlocco has an important mission: possess the crusading and chaste judge Alfonso de Tristano and turn him into a lecherous sex maniac. When Barlocco possesses the Judge’s housekeeper instead, insanity and gender bending wackiness ensues. Dario Fo’s THE DEVIL WITH BOOBS is equal parts savage political satire and wild lust filled romp!“ 

I must say, the play was brilliantly performed.  The lead actress, Katherine Griffith, was outstanding.  And Phillip Rhys, from Nip/Tuck and 24 was delightful to watch.  If you’re in LA, and don’t mind salty language and some nudity, check out this play!

 

Today, Eva & Bassam met me at Claudio & Ryan’s for another Brazilian barbecue.  Claudio’s getting quite good at making pao de queijo!

 
Though he still hasn’t mastered the blender.   This was some hideous papaya dessert that went terribly wrong!

   

Finally, here’s a little something to start your week off right:

It has been a crazy weekend, but a lot of fun.  It’s after 2 AM and I just have a few minutes to post these pictures and then I have to get ready for my trip tomorrow morning (this morning).  I still have laundry to do and I have to clean the house as Luis & David will be staying here while I’m out of town.  (The Hotel Careyfornia is even busy when I’m not here!)  Claudio’s Brazilian BBQ was a hit yesterday, and he even made feijoada.  Yum!  Chazz is still growing like a weed.  Afterwards I headed up to Santa Barbara to see Tom & Cathy and little Patrick.  Bassam hosted a great party last night and we all had a great time.  Today I came back to LA in time for two Oscar parties.  I thought the ceremony was fantastic this year…the best in a long time, maybe ever!  I got 19 out of 24 predictions right, and won the pool for the 2nd year in a row!  On the way home I walked down DeLongpre because I knew that one of the locks on the garage door of  the Sunset Plaza Hotel is busted.  I was able to sneak in to the hotel and take the elevator up to Sunset Blvd. next to where the Vanity Fair Oscar party was being held.  There were people who had been waiting there all day and I just walked out the hotel door and started snapping photos, LOL.  The LAPD were being assholes though, and it was really hard to get good pictures.  I had to get home but I hung out for about 45 minutes and got to see Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams Frank Langella, Anne Hathaway, Jon Voight, Robert Pattinson, Gwen Stefani,  and that awesome Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto guy, hoisting his Oscar and waving to the crowd!     I don’t have time to go through all of the photos now, but here’s a sampling:

The Vanity Fair party 2 blocks from my house

Jon Voight

That’s Mickey Rourke in the white coat and hat

If you look closely, you can see Kate Winslet holding her Oscar

Kate Winslet again

I’ll have to through the rest of these later!

Let’s hear it for the boys (and Daisy, LOL)

Eva & Patrick

Breakfast with Patick

Ryan being butch

Click here for the best of the rest…

I took this out the sun roof on the way home from Santa Barbara

Update:  It’s 8 AM January 1st and everyone is still fast asleep.  I stayed up until about 4 AM uploading pictures, and have added them to the slideshow below.  In those four hours of sleep over 600 people viewed the pictures!  Last night was a blast, as usual.  And as usual, I spent more time with (and took more pictures of) the kids.  Hope the adults didn’t mind too much!  Happy 2009!

December 31st, 4 PM:  Happy New Year from San Francisco, CA; Pacifica, to be exact.  Our 12th annual gathering of the GLY Gang is in full swing, with people still arriving from all corners of the globe.  It’s hard to believe our far flung group of friends started this tradition in Brazil 11 years ago, and have celebrated New Year’s together all over the world ever since.  As our GLY family continues to grow with marriages and babies, I’m thankful for such wonderful friends.  Let’s hope 2009 and our new president ushers in a new era of change for America and indeed the world.  I won’t have much time to blog over the next few days, but keep checking this website for new pictures, the slideshow below will also be updated.  Happy New Year!  –Carey

My Windows Movie Maker is broken, so until I can process the new videos, this will show you where we are:

Click for photo album…updated in real time by my new Eye-Fi wireless SD card!

As promised, there will be lots of photos of my new nephew, Chazz this week! Claudio & Ryan arrived Friday and Chazz quickly acclimated to the West Hollywood lifestyle.  By today, he was getting good at dodging the paparazzi and hobnobbing with all the celebrity dogs at the dog park.    Eva came Saturday for her annual tree trimming sojourn, and the decorating of the official Careyfornia Christmas Tree was underway.  Ryan and I picked out an nice 7 foot tree for $25 at Home Depot and we strung 2200 lights, before hanging over 350 ornaments,  (Rockefeller Center, eat your heart out!)  Claudio, aka, “The Grinch” didn’t help much, but he did manage to put the top on the tree without knocking it over, as this video will attest.  I had to redo it though.

The day in pictures… (I’ll post more of Chazz on Wednesday.  We’re going to see Frost/Nixon now.)

 
I tried to dress Christmas-sy, but the shorts gave it away!

Notice the Hollywood sign above Ryan’s head!

 

Joy to the f*&*%*g world!

 

Deck the halls with Chazz

He looks like the Grinch’s dog here….wait, he is!

 

 

 

 

 
Claudio & Ryan’s new home is a few steps closer to earning the coveted “Fornia” moniker.  Thanks to Bassam getting the wireless network working, blogging can now be done from there! (An important step towards Fornia accreditation…I refuse to be tethered.)  And Sunday night, it was transformed into a Brazilian steakhouse (churrascaria).  Ryan worked all day to get the spa in working order and the kids had a blast.  The evening was capped with the all the children telling Uncle Carey jokes by the fire pit.  As the video attests, hilarity ensued!