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Author Archive | Robin Sparks
The Life Of Your Dreams
Tweet Live The Life of Your Dreams with America’s dream coach, Marcia Wieder. Join her community of dream chasers and find out how you too can live the life of your dreams.
Live Your Adventure
Tweet http://www.LiveYourAdventure.com Personal stories and advice from one who left a white collar job in the Promised Land to live the life of his dreams.
www.GoNomad.com
Tweet The Stories of Modern Day Nomads Literary travel writing by some of the world’s most fearless nomads.
THE STATE WE ARE IN
Tweet My rear view mirror filled with pick-up trucks and SUV’s and then they were all around me. The sides of the freeway sprouted signs. MACY’s, WALMART, HOME DEPOT, TARGET, and IN AND OUT BURGERS. Bumper stickers on rear windshields said Vote Bush/Cheney. I pulled into an Albertson’s parking lot and saw a real cowboy. […]
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
Tweet Movies come and go, mostly unseen when you are on the road. You don’t feel like you’ve missed anything until you begin to hear and read references to films which have changed the collective consciousness of those who stay at home. At some point, it’s like not having read a book in a long […]
BRAZIL COMES TO BERKELEY
Tweet When the curtain rose on the Bale Folclorico da Bahia at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley last night, the sparse crowd applauded politely. Sandra and I were amazed that so few people had shown up. Two intermission-less hours later, the oh so cool Berkeleyites were out of their seats dancing in the aisles. You […]
GATED COMMUNITIES AND HOMELESS DINNERS
Tweet An old friend from my Tahoe days, visits me in San Francisco. We haven’t spoken in over four months, pre-Brazil. “Natasha” has a new condo in the East Bay with a private lake, a tennis court, AND she adds proudly, “It’s in a gated community”. Perplexed, I ask, “What are you afraid of?” “Are […]
STUFF SHOCK
Tweet Left Coast Writers Meeting. Larkspur, California. Four days after my return to the US. Fellow writer: “Wow Robin, just back from Brazil! How does it feel?” “I don’t know. I’m still processing it.” I wasn’t back. Not all of me. There’s not a lot of sympathy wasted on jet lag. It’s a problem everyone […]
THE THING ABOUT BRAZIL
Tweet A list of 49 things the author (who doesn’t believe in stereotypical lists) now knows about Brazil.
OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS
Tweet August 30, 2004 I knew it was time to go when I woke up at 4 AM with rows of angry welts on my stomach and dozens of red bumps on my ankles all crying out at once, “Scratch me!”
WHERE’S WALLY?
Tweet September 18, 2004 Yes, I am back. It’s been two weeks since I got off the plane in San Francisco. And I am just now beginning to recognize the Americana in the mirror. Usually, after a long trip, I hide out long enough to unpack my bags, catch up with mail, pay the bills, […]
IN TRANSIT
Tweet I’m back in Salvador. Arrived with no plans for accommodations…ran into Lourdes walking down the street, Lourdes, my Brazilian friend…who within moments found me a room for $7 a night, just downstairs from my English friend Helena. Yes, in the same neighborhood where I watched a gang try to mug Helena and another gang […]
Bohemian Paradise
Tweet I am now on the most beautiful tropical island off the coast of Salvador, Brazil…In a pousada overlooking the ocean for $30 a night! Including a bountiful breakfast. Just a 2 hour boat ride to Salvador. No motor vehicles, only sandy streets. And filled with interesting foreigners from around the world.
DRUMMING IN THE STREETS OF PELOURINHO
Tweet Salvador, Brazil. Download.
CAPOEIRA
Tweet Video! Watch the video a martial art/dance which originated with the slaves as a secret ritual. Download and play “Capoeira” video. (10 mb) Capoeira, the popular acrobatic dance, was developed by the slaves in Brazil as a tool of insurrection against their masters. When it was prohibited from the slave barracks, the slaves moved […]
GODDESS DANCE IN MORRO SAO PAULO
Tweet Goddess dance in Morro Sau Paulo, island 2 hour boat ride off coast of Salvador, Brazil. Download.
SO LONG SALVADOR
Tweet Like a pack of dogs they appeared circling, surrounding us under the halogen lights, then with lightening speed, surrounding Helena and just as quickly, another pack coming to our rescue to chase them away. They barked and snarled, but within seconds the attackers had withdrawn into the dark alleys of Salvador. When Helena was […]
SAUDADE
Tweet Days pick up momentum and a peculiar quality of poignancy. I go home in less than two weeks.
From the Soul of Brazil
Our house is amazing. We are giving up the predictable security and quiet of a hotel for character, and HOW. Our house in the historical district of Salvador is owned by an American from Hollywood.
TO BE FAIR…
Tweet Ok, so the “hole” had its good points.
Out of the Hole
Like Saddam Hussein, I crawled out, unkempt, squinting against the glare of the sun.
TWISTED TONGUE
Don’t cry for me…My apartment in Boa Viagem, Recife, Brazil is one block from the beach. Good thing I can see it, because other than one or two jogs, I’ve not had time to go there.
Life is a Beach
I am at Tartaruga Beach, one of twenty beaches on the Buzios peninsula. In Brazil, going to the beach is the raison d’ etre – everything is planned around it – and so when in Rome…
THE LESSON
Tweet I moved into an apartment today just a few feet from the water.
BLOGJAM
Tweet LOG-BLOG!!! Half finished articles are jamming my notebooks faster than I can write and log them.
Ex in the City
Tweet Ex In The City was formed by Margaret Manning and her son Nathan, to empower and inspire “dumped, divorced, dynamic divas
SHARK ATTACK!
Tweet Surfer on Buzios Beach, Brazil I have set out to swim alone among the expats of Buzios.
Buzios
Tweet Fisherman near mi casa, Buzios, Brazil After three months, I have returned to the Brazil – the one that remains after the lights have been dimmed on the world’s biggest party and the tourists have gone home. In the article “Walk Like a Brazilian”, I wrote that my search for home was almost over, […]
Walk Like A Brazilian
Tweet I’d been to every country on my list except for one, Brazil. The Brazil in my head was passion, romance, the samba, fresh fruit, tropical beaches, and the bossanova. When I heard that in Brazil it’s rude to show up on time for social engagements, I thought that this just might be the place […]
