Twenty Parts Done

I finally finished the part of the kaleidoscope mandala I was working on.  It took a lot longer than usual.  I don't know if it was because it was so much more stitching or if it was because I was busy with Carnaval.  Anyway, twenty squares done and a lot more to go.

Starting the Zigzag

I started the zigs and zags to make the rectangles of the piece this week.  I decided to do this to make sure the counting's correct before I go any farther.

One World One Heart Winners

I drew the winners for my One World One Heart giveaway on Monday morning, Uruguay time.  All have been notified and two of the prizes are already in the mail.  Congratulations to mitz_zee (Wishing Ewe ornament), Susan (birds at the shore print) and craftytokyomomma (bargello ornament).

Thursday's Murgas

Murgas are a capella-ish singing groups that perform during Carnaval.  They consist of between twenty and thirty singers, a leader, two drummers and a cymbalist.  We saw two murga groups perform last Thursday.  This first one - I'm not sure if their costumes were supposed to be borg or homeless people or what.  They sang well, though.

This is a better picture of those costumes.

And this picture and the next are during the same group performing a song about showering in less than four minutes.  Really.

Here's a picture of the second group of Thursday evening.  They were, I believe, the better performers.  They also had a woman singing in there!  I'm not at all sure why the troupe leader is dressed as a Yanomamo, though.  At least it was a body stocking!

Just Peachy

I did peaches this week.  The building has a lot of them.  It looks like next time is starting another green shutter.

Biscornu Stitched

I finished stitching the two biscornu this week!  I'm going to let someone else put them together so I don't mess up on my first time.  Anyway, here are the pictures.

Teatro Verano - Tronar de Tambores

The Teatro Verano is host, during all of Carnaval, to the official performance competitions.  We went to see some on Thursday and again last night.  All these pictures are from Thursday, and there are four acts. 

First group up was a lubolos group.  That meant drums and a full hour on stage.

Here's a good-ish picture of the drummers behind the central figure of the story.  If the constumes look familiar, this group marched in the parade I did pictures of last week.

Political correctness hasn't found its way to Uruguay's Carnaval.  All through the parade and in some of the performances we saw these Mammy and Pappy couples dancing.  They just seem to mill around.

This is a picture of the female dancer from a really badly danced sex scene in this group.  She wasn't the problem - it was the guy.  He was old, had to suck in his gut, and had the emotional range of a stick of wood.  Anyway, the photo's pretty.

Lots of jiggle wiggle dancing on the stage.  It seems to be the one step all Uruguayan women know how to do.  It was also the only step exhibited by the women of  this group.  Well, they exhibited a lot of their bodies, too.

More jiggle wiggle and lots of feathers.

More of the panoply.