E.T.s in Brasil

[commonpeople1]

One day before I arrived in Brasil, my mother saw a UFO. She'd stepped outside at night to watch my brother and his bride drive off when she noticed something in the sky, just above her head. It was an object that emitted red light in all directions, reflecting on the clouds gathered at the top of the mountain our house is built on. My brother says it could have been an airplane, but my mom is convinced this it's just the latest of many sightings in this region.

Every time I visit Brasil, there is talk of UFOs and sightings, in particular around here. Discussing flying saucers here is like talking about the weather in England - something people do everyday, without a hint of embarrassment anymore. There's a town nearby, Varginha, where the entire population witnessed a UFO display in the sky in 1996. Later, some people in the town saw one of the aliens in a park. The creature was apparently captured by the government. Years later, a massive blackout hit the south of Brasil and plunged hundreds of cities into darkness. It coincided with the passage of a tube-like UFO witnessed by people in these cities, but the government claimed it was one of their airplanes protecting brasilian airspace.

Yesterday, while everyone napped after lunch (common occurence in my family) I lay in the living room watching hours of UFO documentaries on the History Channel. I'm starting to sympathise with Robbie Williams (who is a self-confessed UFO enthusiast). There's always fresh coffee on the go, cakes placed in strategic points across the house, biscuits in many jars, fruits at arm's reach from one of the many trees in our garden - and it rains rains rains, so I stay inside and scratch the heads of sausage dogs with my feet while I read books.

If you love The Goonies, Labyrinth or the Neverending Story, you must watch Bridge to Terabithia. I'm not a big fan of children in films, but these ones are excellent actors, in a very well-told story that actually manages to mix fantasy, a love story and a criticism of Christianity in a much more powerful and subtle way than Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. The trailer for the film (linked above) is actually the most misleading trailer in the history of cinematography - everything you see in it is actually a small percentage of the actual story! Highly recommend it as a thoughtful and moving film to watch during this holiday season.

Comments

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

Oooh - another person on m'flist described seeing a UFO *thing* in Essex over Christmas - §§ dingdingdingding / dingdingdingding§§

Wonderful descriptions as ever! : D

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Id love to read more about recent UFO sightings and studies over 2009. Whichever way you look at it, they bring up interesting questions about our culture, out planet, etc. Plus, its sort of fun to imagine that crazy stuff like abductions are really going on! (though why is it they only go for Americans?!?!?)

[sallypointzero.livejournal.com]

Yep, keeping an open mind on everything is always good.
Trouble is, people in Utah etc are so open-minded it that the Tower of Babel could fall into their heads unnoticed

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Is the whole Chupacabras e.t. thing still big there?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I asked my mom after reading your comment and she says it was never mentioned again. The main stories now are crop circles across the South of Brasil and sightings in the skies. Just the usual stuff. :-)

[atomic-joe2.livejournal.com]

I had an experience with UFOs once. And I'm not even interested in stuff like that! Directly above at about where the clouds would be in the daytime there were two groups of lights arranged in circles beside each other. Every now and again both sets would spin and one light would break off from one side and cross over to the other group then the spinning would stop.

This carried on for about 45 minutes until they all of a sudden disappeared. Me and my mate who'd watched the whole thing with me were lost for words for the rest of the night.

I don't know what it was I'd witnessed but it definitely wasn't a constellation of stars (since when do stars spin about like that?) and didn't seem to be altogether Earthly in nature. 100% true story, that.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Where exactly did this happen? Might have been interesting to check whether people in the area had reported similar things - either to the local news or UFO sights, etc. Do you remember the date?

[doraphilia.livejournal.com]

the Bridge to Terabithia was among my favorite books when I was a child. Katherine Paterson's novels really addressed so many issues no other young adult author would touch. Death, suicide, romantic feelings for an adult, and so much more. I have not seen the movie but when I heard Bridge to Terabithia was going to be a Disney movie I almost retched!!! Glad to hear that you think it was good... maybe I should give it a chance.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I had no idea it was a Disney film until I did a youtube search for the trailer. It takes on those topics you mentioned, and it has a critical tone towards Christianity, which makes me think Disney didn't sell out on this one. Then again, if you think about Disney's "gay days" at its parks, I think the company is actually quite liberal in many ways and deserves a bit of credit. But yes, the movie is really worth a look if you know the novels well. I was particularly impressed with the children's acting - the one thing that usually goes wrong in these types of films, spoiling everything.

[la-magarita.livejournal.com]

Feliz natal!!!
Tem planos de vir pra Sampa?

Eu adorei esse filme!!!

Bjokas

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Feliz Natal! Infelizmente nao tenho planos de ir pra Sampa. :-/

E voce, quando vem visitar a pousada da minha mae?!

[idioticpoet.livejournal.com]

if you recommend it, thats good enough for me...also, I quite enjoyed Pullman's trilogy which improved from 1/2 way through the second book and on.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoy it, though one thing to keep in mind is that it's a kid mostly aimed at young teens! (but still quite enjoyable for adults I think, especially if you were the kind that played outdoors when you were young)

[saint-narcissus.livejournal.com]

Merry Christmas Ollie!
xxoo -David

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Same to you, D.! xo