Saturday, March 27, 2004
Back In Bwazeew!
They actually pronounce it that way here! It´s nice to be back here! I missed the color, the flavor, the chaos, and the contrasts. Sao Paolo is bursting with life, bold postmodern buildings everywhere reflect tropical flora and rushing traffic on Avenida Paulista, where my hotel and the bank are located.I strolled through hilly, sloping Trianon gardens, a lush green haven in the midst of the hubbub where thick green vegetation filters out the noise, children play, young lovers make out, and friends talk heart-to-heart. Outside the gate, a vendor turns coconuts into giant take-out drinks by punching a hole and inserting a straw. I visited MASP, Sao Paolo´s beautifully designed and endowed museum, a red and grey rectangle on cement stilts, and enjoyed its small but impressive collection of French Impressionists, other European artists, and Brazilian 20th century art.
Fingerprinted at the airport and subjected to a 2 hour immigration line, Americans are paying here for Bush´s decision to do the same to South Americans. Brazilians have pride and stand up for it. I was sad when one Argentine youth complained loudly about the line, and the immigration guards decided, as a lesson, not to let him into the country.. Someone asked "Don´t we have freedom of speech here?" and the reply was "Not on this line, you don´t!" I was sure glad I had eaten breakfast on the plane, and brought music to while away the time. Lunch was thin steak filet with rice, veggies, and "farofa," which is basically mandioc flour fried with sundry ingredients. Very filling. That´s all for now. Will probably make it an early night, since I´m getting up at 6am tomorrow to go to Brasilia for the day! Chauzinho!
this entry's permalink
Friday, March 26, 2004
Happy Birthday, Celia! Enjoy!
Celia's cumple is actually tomorrow March 27. And, it's Galería time! So, I'm off to Brazil! I'm falling asleep I'm so tired... But it's a good thing. I will be posting daily as technology permits, and I think it will.. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this ‘roundup’ of wonderful photos taken from some of my favorite photoblogs. The artists are: Pixpopuli, Mused Pixelflake, TopLeftPixel, Myopic, ExitWound, InConduit, Funny Time Of Year,Chromogenic, and Holland’s Martijn Lammerts. All of these are consistently great.
Brazilian sayings:
Quem com porcos se mistura, farelos come.
Who with pigs mixes (gets together), crumbs (must) eat.
Em boca fechada nao entra mosca.
In a closed mouth a fly never enters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Military justice is to justice what military music is to music." - Groucho Marx
"It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing- I used to be a good boy." - Mark Twain
stealth parenting - (STELTH payr.un.ting) n. Performing childcare duties while pretending to be at a business meeting or other work-related function. See also stealth errands.
this entry's permalink
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Czech Out These Great Films
In the mid-60s what was then Czechoslovakia won two best foreign film Oscars in 1965 and 1967, a powerful one-two knock-out from a country which was about to get knocked pretty badly itself. I finally saw the later of these films, “Closely Watched Trains,” which keenly observes the lives and lusts of a sleepy backwater train station in Nazi-occupied Czech-land. We meet the unforgettable matchstick-shaped young Milos and live through his frustrated attempts to lose his virginity. What’s striking is how honestly human sexuality is presented, at a time when Hollywood labored under a morals code that all but banished the subject from the screen. And I don’t mean explicitly showing sex acts or nude bodies, but rather showing how sexuality informs human behavior, feeling, communication, and self-image. 
”Shop On Main Street” is also a masterpiece with a very different Nazi occupation story. It concerns an old, nearly deaf Jewish lady who owns a button shop and the Mayor’s brother-in-law, who hopes to get rich being the shop’s “Aryan owner;” it turns out the shop is broke, and only exists out of the kindness of Jewish neighbors, who buy what they don’t need to help the lady out. The relationship that ensues, and where it leads, are a powerful story and the acting is nothing short of miraculous
this entry's permalink
Celebrity Sighting!
Walked right into a Queer Eye location shooting and met Carson personally…… while buying a well-needed work shirt at Brooks Brothers. The straight guy looked really stereotypical, baseball cap and all. Carson is equally queeny when the camera’s off. Alas, I totally forgot that I had my digital camera with me in my bag. Darn! I saw the catered food for the crew outside under a canopy to protect it from heavy rain. Everyone looked like they were having grand fun.
this entry's permalink
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Brasilia Bound!
I’m rewarding myself for this work crunch with a day trip to Brasilia, the retro-futuristic urban conundrum that replaced Rio de Janeiro as Brazil’s capital in 1960. I’ve never been there before, and it’s an hour’s flight from my base in Sao Paulo. I will be writing you from Brazil, but since I won’t have time for many pictures and links, I thought I’d treat you to a brief pictorial Brasilia visit below. Check out as well Thomas' excellent Brasilia fotos from his old site.
Congress:
Cathedral and Government Buildings:
Inside of Cathedral:
Brasilia Postcard:
Statue of Brasilia’s founder, former President Juscelino Kubitschek (pronounced Kubi-checkie) : - )
Their White House – The Palacio do Planalto:
And by night, again, The Palacio do Planalto:
this entry's permalink
"It's a beautiful day, don't let it slip away..." - U2, 2000
"It's a friggin' roller-coaster..." - Aaron Holsberg, 3/24/2004
Have just seen the two extremes in less than three hours. At 1pm, I had a surprise lunch with Fitch at Tao, the nicest Asian place in town. At 2:30pm, I met some new co-workers, and was given major new projects on a very tight deadline, and was told about some major difficulties in this place. That's Wall Street for you, to a T...
this entry's permalink
"It's a friggin' roller-coaster..." - Aaron Holsberg, 3/24/2004
Have just seen the two extremes in less than three hours. At 1pm, I had a surprise lunch with Fitch at Tao, the nicest Asian place in town. At 2:30pm, I met some new co-workers, and was given major new projects on a very tight deadline, and was told about some major difficulties in this place. That's Wall Street for you, to a T...
this entry's permalink
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
I Dream Of Blonde Iraqis...
The first I heard of Baghdad was at age 5, on the TV series "I Dream Of Jeannie"... : - ) True to mid-1960s TV "realism", Jeannie made constant references to her childhood, family, etc being in Baghdad. So I guess she was my first exposure to the Iraqi people (and probably to the female belly button as well). "Jeannie" was created, btw, by trashy novelist Sidney Sheldon.
What’s the biggest creature that ever lived on earth? T-Rex? Brontosaurus? Nope… At 100 feet long and 125 tons, the Blue Whale, alive today in an ocean near you, is double the size of the largest dinosaur. Its heart is the size of a Volvo and pumps 10 tons of blood! And its penis… well, twelve feet long, supported by two tons of testes. Despite these foreboding dimensions, the Blue Whale is threatened, hunting has reduced the population to 2,000, and it will require decades of protection to be safe from extinction… I learned this watching "Life Of Mammals", a superb 10-part documentary by Sir David Attenborough available on DVD. 
I'm a big fan of Sir David, and my collection also includes "Life Of Birds" and "Blue Planet"; some of you will recognize "Planet" from your visits to my place as the marine life on the muted TV that I use as "ambient video" 
"If you want the last word, apologize." - Anonymous
"A moment's thinking is an hour in words." - Thomas Hood
"What's another word for Thesaurus?" - Stephen Wright
this entry's permalink
Monday, March 22, 2004
Paulista Vistas, For You Armchair Turistas
On my Brazil business trip, my base will be Sao Paulo, its biggest city and center of business and culture. I will be staying near fabled Avenida Paulista, which in 1902 was a tree-lined row of coffee baron mansions, but in the 1960s became their 'Park Avenue meets Wall Street.' Paulista, then and now:
"When a poor man eats a chicken, it means one of them has been ill..." - Brazilian Proverb
Sao Paulo's treasure-filled art museum is called MASP, pronounced Masp-ee (rhymes with raspy) because Brazilians are loathe to end any word with a hard consonant. Trying to pronounce English, they say desk (desk-ie), flashback (flashie-backie) and my favorite, the mega-movie Titanic (chee-ta-nee-kee) :- )
this entry's permalink
Sunday, March 21, 2004
This Is My View!
One of my party guests from last week, Luc, posted my panoramic window view on his blog (which is in French, btw)! Here it is:
Here's your gracious host, with Luc in the chair, and catered food, books, and CDs in the background : - )
this entry's permalink
All The News That Fits, We Print...
This is the Shaheed Martyrs monument at left. You should definitely visit it on your next trip to Baghdad... : - ) Human Creativity may be infinite... ...but the possible combinations of our 26-letter alphabet available for Internet domains are quite finite, as anyone who’s tried to name a new product or business has discovered to their chagrin. Check out "Get Out Of My Namespace,” a fascinating NYT article about name battles, silly and serious, and internet ‘squatters.’ Remember how I enjoyed “Frozen”, the superb play with Swoosie Kurtz I saw in previews? It finally opened, and the NYT gave it a great review.
Hey there Netflix subscribers and other rental enthusiasts: 21 Grams is out on DVD, you should see this if you haven’t. It’s a riveting film about failing hearts and broken souls, with three powerful intertwining stories shown out of chronological order, like a puzzle, and features some 2003’s best acting, courtesy of Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio del Toro. See it, See it, See it….Finally, TV On The Radio, the new group I’m dying to see live, is profiled in NYT today! this entry's permalink
Coming soon: Galería and Good Reads....
G'morning. Nice out today. I must sally forth. Sally forth. Open my eyes. And ears. Brian sent me 6 CDs yesterday. Time to play Album Soup!
"You were so poorly cast as a malcontent..." - The Shins, 2003
this entry's permalink
G'morning. Nice out today. I must sally forth. Sally forth. Open my eyes. And ears. Brian sent me 6 CDs yesterday. Time to play Album Soup!"You were so poorly cast as a malcontent..." - The Shins, 2003
this entry's permalink
