Messages from Travel category

Football or neutron bomb?

São Paulo, Brazil. With a population upwards of 11 million people and a population density of more than 7,000 people per square kilometre, it is a pretty crowded place. But on July 2, 2010 during the second half of the Brazil-Netherlands World Cup quarterfinal, the streets were completely deserted.
Publication date: 2010-08-31 more

The Most Isolated Man on the Planet

The Most Isolated Man on the Planet.
Publication date: 2010-08-21 more

Retratos Pintados

Retratos Pintados "Since the late 19th century through the 1990s, hand-painted photographic portraits were a common feature in homes in the rural areas of the northeastern Brazilian states. At a time when black-and-white photographs were not considered dramatic enough, the retratos pintados (
Publication date: 2010-07-19 more

Let's dance forró!

Forró is popular dance music from northeastern Brazil. Forró em Vinil is a blog with out of catalog forró gems for download. But wait, is this legal? YES! Under Brazil's new copyright reform proposal, if a work is no longer available on the market, it's fair use to copy it if you're not making a profit. Chapter IV, Article 46, paragraph XVII. So go ahead and enjoy some forró! (click on "para baixar este disco, clique aqui") You can... ...learn how to dance it! (for more, search for "aprenda dançar forró") ... learn about our beloved Luiz Gonzaga, THE forró giant. See him play! ... even check out some NY based forró. David Byrne loves it!
Publication date: 2010-07-10 more

Nearly there....

There are only 10 days of the World Cup left. The World Cup Final is on Sunday 11th July at 19:30 GMT. Today sees the start of the Quarter Finals, and with only 8 teams left, this is when the pressure really starts. A brief Preview of the Quarter finals: Netherlands vs Brazil - This could be one of the games of the tournament. Netherlands have held it together this time (Almost...) and not imploded. Brazil have gotten better as the tournament has progressed, the hard-fought 2 -1 win over North Korea seems a long time ago now. They beat Chili in the Round of 16, Bielsa was undone by poor defending at a corner, and Brazils rapid counter-attacks, utilising Kaka, Robinho and Fabiano. Ghana vs Uruguay - This could be a historic day for African football if Ghana win, as it would mark the first time an African team has made it through to the semi-finals. Asamoah Gyan is also one of the top scorers and could win the Golden Boot, as could Uraguay's Suarez. They will have their work cut out dealing with players like Diego Forlan, who has been the heartbeat of this Uraguayan side, and Luis Suarez, however Ghana has several players who either play or have played in the English Premiership such as Kevin Prince Boateng, John Paintsil, and their excellent goalkeeper Richard Kingson and who are used to dealing with top quality players. Spain vs Paraguay - This would appear to be the easiest one to call, but this is the World Cup and anything can happen. Spain is a team full of world class star players, Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Torres, however Torres has yet to find his shooting boots, and was replaced in their last game (vs Portugal) by Llorente, a much more physical player who held the line and caused problems for Portugal, and was involoved in the play leading up to David Villa's winning goal. Paraguay have had a strange time, beating both Argentina and Brazil in the World Cup Qualifiers, but then losing their way towards the end of qualifying, and after qualifying, drawing with the Netherlands and losing to Qatar in warm up friendlies. And in the round of 16 they only beat Japan (after a very dull game) on Penalties. Key players are their strike force Roque Santa Cruise and Lucas Barrios. Argentina vs Germany- This could also be another one of the games of the tournament. Germany are a young side with plenty of talent who play fast football and can attack like lightening on the break (I should know- I'm English!) Their key play-maker is Mesut Ozil, who is technically gifted and has a free role, playing left/right/central with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira covering his movement. Up front they have two excellent (at international level) strikers in Lahm and Podolski. And already they are taunting the Argentinians. Argentina are, as probably most of the world knows, managed by Diego Armando Maradona, a man who has been pure theatre at the World cup Finals. Their qualifying included playing around a hundred different players, before settling on their squad, which includes World Number 1 Leo Messi, as well a star strikers Higuain, Tevez and Milito. Maradona is also smart: he has, on his coaching staff, the talents of Oscar Ruggeri, Sergio Batistuta and Carlos Bilardo, the last of whom managed Argentina when the won the World Cup in 1986 with Maradona as a player. The Semi finals line up like this: Netherlands/Brazil vs Uraguay/Ghana Spain/Paraguay vs Argentina/Germany BBC sport team webpages: Germany Argentina Spain Paraguay Netherlands Brazil Uruaguay Ghana So who do you want to win?
Publication date: 2010-07-02 more

where no tear is inconceivably mediocre

16 year old Yonlu made music that ranged from bossa nova to 8-bit music from the sounds of desktop printers, never knowing that he would someday make the pages of Paste, eMusic, and Rolling Stone Brasil. He posted It's Not Another King Kong (later titled A Boy and the Tiger) to a gaming forum, where it was met with praise. More songs soon followed, which included English songs (I Know What It's Like, Humiliation), and also Portuguese songs (Estrela, Luana). Perhaps suffering from depression, Yonlu took his own life via carbon monoxide poisoning in 2006, just a few weeks before his 17th birthday. His parents only learnt of his songwriting from a CD he left behind for them, with a note telling them to listen to the CD "whenever they felt sad".
Publication date: 2010-06-09 more

Five Days In the Favela

Complexo da Maré is one of the oldest favelas in Rio, and a new short documentary, Te Vejo Mare, shows how, despite the headlines and violence, a community and culture manages to thrive there. As featured on today's Guardian website: Welcome to Complexo da Maré (10:16), The Samba Is Infinite (10:22), Fighting for Peace (11:00)
Publication date: 2010-05-19 more

"Yes, it was a dump. But people are desperate to have a home anywhere."

Floods and mudslides in Rio de Janeiro have killed over 250 people, mostly in favelas, poverty-stricken shanty-towns built on hillsides above major cities. Salvation Army Latin America Relief Fund TASK Brasil Comunidade em Ação Developing Minds Foundation
Publication date: 2010-04-10 more

Novos Baianos F.C., a samba-rock commune documentary

Os Novos Baianos (The New Bahians) played psychedelic rock blended with regional Brazilian folk styles, heavily influenced by bossa nova maestro João Gilberto. In 1972, after recording Acabou Chorare (which went on to top Rolling Stone Brazil's list of best Brazilian albums ), the band moved to a far suburb of Rio de Janiero to live communally, play soccer, and work on the album Novos Baianos F.C. (New Bahians Football Club). In 1973, German television sent music producer Solano Ribeiro to capture their daily life on film. It's around 45 minutes, broken up in six youtube videos: 1 2 3 4 5 6. No subtitles, but you won't need them too much. The audio is spotty, but it gets better. Via The Good Blood, via Vitrola.
Publication date: 2010-01-25 more

The Royal Nightmare

The Royal Nightmare, an interesting animated short. Other films of note by animator Alex Budovsky: Flagged Life and Times of Aleksandr Tatarskiy (Plus a film he animated for proper context.) Jukebox Return I Will to Old Brazil WARNING: Features a cover by the band The Real Tuesday Weld.
Publication date: 2010-01-17 more

Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest

Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil's border with Bolivia. (Previously: Lost City of Z and Colonel Fawcett)
Publication date: 2009-12-14 more

Bert the Chimney Sweep Takes the Red Pill

Sunday night 60 Minutes aired a segment on the state of cyber crime & cyber terror which included the extraordinary claim that unknown hackers were behind massive power outages in Brazil in 2005 & 2007. Now Wired Magazine's Threat Level blog says that's just not true. According to two studies (PDF, Portuguese) by the Brazilian government it was buildup of soot on insulators that caused the blackouts, not super-hackers demonstrating their abilities. Is the US Intelligence Community passing around false information to justify its relevance?
Publication date: 2009-11-10 more

Toe Jam and Earl Jam

Os Gameboys are a band from Brazil who play only music from classic videogames. They are really, really good. (via waxy: "the best live Mario cover I've ever seen")
Publication date: 2009-10-27 more

Cidade Maravilhosa

Seeking to be the first Green Olympics, Brazil wins its bid to be the first ever South American nation to host the 2016 games. For your listening pleasure, two songs about Rio, an acoustic version of Cidade Maravilhosa by Caetano Veloso, and Aquele abraço by our man, Gilberto Gil.
Publication date: 2009-10-02 more

Ce soir sera une bonne soirée!

On September 10th, to celebrate their initiation week, 172 communications students at the University of Quebec at Montreal decided to put on a show. After weeks of preparation, the costumed and prop-wielding crowd enacted an exuberant, complex, and flawlessly-choreographed performance of the Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" that sprawled through the campus's multi-story Judith Jasmin Pavilion... and they did it all in one continuous take (on their second try). The feat is just the most recent example of "lipdubbing" -- a video phenomenon where a single camera moves through a crowd of highly coordinated lip-syncers in a single seamless take, with the original recording dubbed over the finished product. Though the basic concept was pioneered by viral videos like the Numa Numa Dance and OK Go's "Here It Goes Again", the current model for lipdubbing was conceived by Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick, who coined the term after dubbing a recording of himself singing "Endless Dream" by Apes & Androids. According to technical writer and blogger Tom Johnson's analysis of the video, the best lipdubs appear "spontaneous, authentic, participatory, and fun." Lodwick's video was followed up by a Vimeo business partner's staff doing their rendition of Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" (previously). The technique soon exploded in popularity -- everything from web magazines to TV studios to hospitals got into the act. But perhaps no group took to lipdubbing better than universities. Following the lead of The University Lipdub Project (original video), colleges from multiple nations adopted lipdubbing as a way to showcase their campus life and school spirit: School, Nation - Video info - Song Institut Universitaire de Technologie de Rouen, France - 140 people - "Thriller" by Michael Jackson HEC Paris, France - 120 people - "Lollipop" by Mika l'Université de Poitiers, France - 56 people - "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by the Scissor Sisters Mines de Saint Etienne, France - "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by the Scissor Sisters IUT Belfort/Montbéliard, France - 353 people (a world record) - "La Confession de Monsieur Connard" by Les Tock'art HEC Montréal, Canada - 150 people - "Mamma Mia" by Abba Institut Notre Dame de la Providence, France - "Toi + Moi" by Grégoire Ecole Polytechnique, France - "Love Is All" by Roger Glover Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany - "LMU" (original song) IHECS, Belgium - 100+ people - "Banana Split" HEC Montréal, Canada - 172 people - "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams European Business School, Germany - "Tell It to My Heart" by Dyane Taylor, "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys ESC Dijon, France - 95 people - "Working Together" by Gonzales Essec Business School, France - 200 people - "Let's Get It Started" by the Black Eyed Peas Emlyon Business School, France - 300 people - "Pop the Music" by Triim, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Buggles ENSIC, France - 85 people - "Hot N Cold" by Kate Perry Campo Limpo Paulista College, Brazil - 56 people - "Ultramen" by Santo ForteBonus one-shot goodness:Children of Men's climactic 6-minute one-shot scene (spoilers) Honda's "The Cog" (previ-ously) The Way Things Go (previously) Bike Hero (previously) Slydini's Newspaper (previously)
Publication date: 2009-10-01 more

Honduran coup regime attacks Brazil's embassy

Honduran coup regime attacks Brazil's embassy with LRAD-X Remote Long Range Acoustic Device, violating the Geneva Convention. And, to violate it a little more, they've also used a mobile cell phone jamming device.
Publication date: 2009-09-26 more

Controversial WWF September 11 Advertisment Causes Outrage, Goes Viral

Brazil-based agency DDB BRASIL, contracted by the WWF to make an ad which would drive a "Respect the Planet" theme home, thought that making a 9/11 themed ad would be a good idea. After the video somehow makes it to the internet (some say it was leaked by the agency itself to win an award at Cannes), outrage predictably ensues. DDB Brasil insists the commercial was nothing but a rough draft and the WWF has not endorsed the ad made in their name, although evidence exists suggesting WWF Brazil endorsed a similar print ad a while back. Stupid, bad ad and a comedy of errors? Or the latest viral ad strategy?
Publication date: 2009-09-04 more

IT'S ALL PIPES!!!

Brazil's new water conservation campaign: Xixi no Banho! (slyt)
Publication date: 2009-08-06 more

10 years is just a blink of the ever-watching galactic eye

Inspired by its 10th anniversary, the Earth Observatory has pulled together a special series of NASA satellite images documenting how the world has changed. From these images, Wired Science has made 5 videos, presenting convenient time-lapse views of the world changing (mainly) because of human actions. Watch the urbanization of Dubai, specifically the growth of Palm Jumeirah. See the Aral Sea dry up - once the fourth largest lake, down to 10 percent of its original size (marked by the thin black line in the video) by 2007. View the clearing the Amazon, as observed from above the state of Rondônia in western Brazil. Behold the return of Mesopotamia's Wetlands, now in the process of being restored from near total destruction under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Witness the impact of drought on Southern Utah's Lake Powell, where water level dropped from 20 million to 8 million acre-feet from 2000 to 2005.
Publication date: 2009-06-06 more

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Publication date: 2009-06-03 more