School's out for Saturday?

Saturday is usually the start of our work week. This Saturday morning we all woke as usual at 5am, to prep for Coleman's 5:45 school bus, and parents' 6am bus pickup for school. But at 5:40 our neighbor (another early-riser) knocked on the door to tell us that The King Declared a School Holiday today. This was quickly confirmed by a call from the principal, who asked me to send out a mass e-mail to school parents. Barb then phoned her students' homes to inform them (But should the kids still bring their costumes on Sunday, will there still be a Book Character Parade? hmm. probably).
Why the holiday? Rumors abound. The internet provides no information, neither the national nor international news channels. Someone reports that the King shook up his Cabinet last night, firing the Education Minister... that's the closest we come.
Or is it because the Pearl Roundabout is now the flat-surface-don't-remember-anything roundabout?
Events in Libya and in Japan are dominating the news now. It will take time to find out what's happening here.
But the weather is gorgeous. We will take a walk along the seashore.

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String Quartet Broken String

We attended a marvelous concert last night, at the Porto Museum of Casa do Infante , a beautifully-renovated 1325 building near the river. At one point it served as a customs house. The government sponsors Portuguese musicians to return from other European orchestras to perform in their homeland. We heard and saw this group play a traditional piece – Haydn string quartet Opus 20 #2. Then the modern Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti – the stunning last movement of which they performed as an encore. They performed (and I recorded) the Shostakovich Quartet #9, during which the first-violinist broke a string (it features several strongly-plucked chords!) and had to retreat&repeat!

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico . There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver. Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government. As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time. I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government? And what will it take to recover from the damage? Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever? Only ni...

Música Tunas e Boémia

We attended an unusual concert last night: Música Tunas e Boémia (bands and parties) University student folk-music groups — big groups of 40 and more each! put on a great show of singing, playing, flag-twirling, tambourine-swinging, all at the major (private) concert hall. The most unusual thing about it was that nobody used any electronic device (except for microphone amplification)—no electric guitar or keyboard, no big drum set…every instrument and prop was hand-held. The singing was quite good, given the effort to synchronize 40 voices.

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