Eu não quero te tocar muito, bebe

A Winter evening .... as seen from my Minnesota driveway ....

Here we go again ....

Every autumn, I begin to think about leaving the sea of blogs. Although I first found my way here in August 2008, it was not until January 2009 that I began posting one .... two actually, but the first was gone before January ended. Being a rather organized individual who likes to do things in a logical, sequential manner, in the autumn I think that my January anniversary date would be an appropriate time to disappear.

Invariably, I begin to look through old posts with their words and photographs and music and never quite work my way far enough along to utter the words -- it is over. The swirling snow photograph is part of the reason. This is the third post in which it has appeared since it was taken on February 20, 2014. There is nothing particularly remarkable about it, but to me it roars Minnesota and is a perfect illustration of what some people love about the place and what others hate about it. The photograph does have a rather ghostly and surreal quality to it, I think. Anyway, I like it and here it is again.

Also included are four pieces of music:

Yahoo is a Brazilian band formed in 1988 which performs and records both in English and in Portuguese. This particular piece, titled "Mordida de Amor" and sung in Portuguese, probably sounds familiar. It is a cover of "Love Bites," a very memorable song from Def Leppard. The Yahoo lineup includes Zé Henrique (bass guitar and lead vocals), Serginho Knust (guitar, acoustic guitar and vocals), Val Martins (keyboard and vocals) and Marcelão (drums and vocals).

Vixen is an American hard rock band formed right here in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1980 by then high school student Jan Kuehnemund. Its most successful period was from 1987 to 1992, with Kuehnemund (lead guitar), Janet Gardner (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Share Ross (bass guitar) and Roxy Petrucci (drums). Kuehnemund died of cancer at age 51 in 2013. Here is the band performing "Edge of a Broken Heart." Kuehnemund is the young lady with a mountain of blonde hair seen mostly on the right side of the stage.

A few days ago on another blog, I wrote: "My favorite variations of it (the 'Boléro') are with Jorge Donn dancing, alone or with others, and choreography by Maurice Béjart. It is a song meant for dance, I think, and not purely as an instrumental piece .... although in any form it instantly captures you and pulls you deeply into it and along with it."  Since then, I have watched French ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem dance to the music.  I think she does it with more aplomb and grace than Donn. Here is Guillem's  final performance of Béjart's Boléro as it appeared live on television on 31 December 2015 as the clock counted down to midnight in Yokohama, Japan. I also watched for one more time British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean win their Olympic gold medal skating to it in 1984. Their performance is timeless.

"O come, O come, Emmanuel" is sung here in Latin as "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel" by New Zealand singer and songwriter Hayley Westenra, who sings in a number of languages. Perhaps, this song will awaken the holiday spirit within you. The hymn has been around for a while and has its origin in monastic life and lore in the 8th or 9th century. Can you grasp how many times "Veni" has been sung since then?

Now then .... after an offering of a number of written words and a photograph of a snowy night appearing for the third time and four pieces of varied music, the question still remains: To blog or not to blog ....