"Spider Pig" or "Porco Aranha"

I thought always the brazilian voices for The Simpsons were better than the american ones... but they changed Homer a few years ago and it's never been the same... so, what's better nowadays, Spider Pig or Porco Aranha???

American Gangster

I seriously think that, after The Godfather's, only Martin Scorcese should be allowed to make gangster movies. There it is, I said it. I doesn't matter how talented the people involved are (and you don't get much better than Denzel Washington, Russel Crowe and Ridley Scott); it doesn't matter how good the story is; it doesn't matter how much money goes into the production, how many awards it gets... it always feels like it's lacking something. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good movie; it's just not good enough to stand up against Casino, Goodfellas, The Departed, and so on... it's the story of Frank Lucas, a nice fellow with a tendency for sudden fits of rage (he's specially fond of banging people's heads against stuff) that became the most successful drug dealer in the US during the Vietnam years. It's also the story det. Richie Roberts, the most honest cop ever, who is gonna spend the better part of the movie trying to catch Lucas (actually, he first has to find out who Lucas is...)
The movie is a bit too long and still manages to have kind of a sudden ending... it's weird. Some parts of the story aren't really clear and I think that there isn't enough violence and tension to keep the mood for 157 minutes. Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe are both very good, as we've come to expect, but this isn't a carrer-high for any of them. We've seen they play this before.
All in all this a very good movie; just not the classic I was expecting. And since last year's The Departed is still fresh in our memory, I think American Gangster is gonna have a tough time this awards season.
On a sidenote, a very promising thing to come out of this movie might be the "unofficial soundtrack" released by Jay-Z; apparently he watched the movie and got so inspired he just had to write an entire album about his own experience as a street hustler.

My 2007 Musical Favorites...

2007 was the year I stopped being so lazy and started looking for new music. I really listened to a lot of new (for me) stuff and found I liked a lot of them. At least three or four of these "new" bands are now amongst my most-listened. I was wondering whether I should talk about the stuff I discovered in 2007 (even though most of it has been around for quite some time), or the stuff that actually came out last year. Being lazy as I am, I chose the latter basically because it's less to write about :-)... I might come back and do the other later on!!!!
Let's start with the Best Album of the year... here, I have three very strong contestants:

• Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, by Spoon
• Icky Thump, by The White Stripes
• Magic, by Bruce Springsteen
  

I'll have a hard time choosing a favorite. Icky Thump is probably the most irregular of the three: it has some pretty weak tunes (I don't really like Conquest and a couple other), but it also has some of the best songs of the year: Icky Thump, 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues and Rag and Bone. Spoon's album is a lot more regular, it's one of those albums that you just listen from start to finish without ever feeling like skipping. But there's not really any song on the level of 300 M.P.H... Magic is an amazing record... like Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, there are no weak tracks; it also "tells a story" through some really amazing songs, at least three of which (Gypsy Biker, Girls in Their Summer Clothes, and Magic, not to mention the catchiest of all, Radio Nowhere) can go head-to-head with Jack White's best any day. So, there you go, it wasn't so hard after all:

1. Magic, by Bruce Springsteen
2. Icky Thump, by The White Stripes
3. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, by Spoon
4. Who You Are, by Cary Brothers
5. Sky Blue Sky, by Wilco
   

Some albums may not be in my list simply because I haven't had the chance of listening to them. Others I did listen to and couldn't see what the fuss was all about: specifically, why the hell did everybody love M.I.A., Arcade Fire, and LCD Soundsystem, respectively numbers 1, 4 and 7 in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2007 list? It's beyond me... too much electronica for my taste... actually, I might give M.I.A. another shot, it did sound different enough to deserver a few listens... Arcade Fire is interesting, but definitely not great... and LCD, well, I would say that they really suck... but since everybody seems to love them, I'll just say that "they're really not the kind of music I like"... I'll come back later for another post on My Top 5 Songs of 2007...

cheers

Two Books

Well, since my search for an apartment (unfruitfully) continues, and I haven't been able to go to the movies lately, I'll take a few moments to write a little about a couple of books I read recently... The first one is The Act You've Known for All These Years: A Year in the Life of Sgt. Pepper and Friends, (em português) whose title is pretty self-explanatory... it's a great book about one of the most creative and weird periods of pop music. Beatles, Bob Dylan, (Syd Barrett's) Pink Floyd, Beach Boys (well, Brian Wilson really), Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young... those were amazing times... basically Clinton Heylin writes about that year when the world's greatest bands were fighting to see who would come up with the next big breakthrough (you know, after Rubber Soul, Revolver, Blonde on Blonde, Pet Sounds...) in pop music, and would set the pace for everything that was to come. Acid is, alongside the aforementioned artists, the main character of the story of the rise (and fall, sort of) of psychodelia. For me it was really cool to get to know much more about one of my favorite musical periods ever. One of the best parts of the book is that, even though Heylin pays the deserved respect to everybody involved he does look at everything with a critical eye... this is no ode to Sgt. Pepper's... it is a serious, fairly unbiased analysis of the environment in which it came to be... oh, and he suggests soundtracks for each chapter, which is pretty cool too!!! :-)

When I came to Belo Horizonte, one of the first places I went to was (of course) the nearby mall. There I went into a bookstore and two books caught my eyes: a fairly short book by José Saramago that I'd never seen before, 1993, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (em potuguês)... I don't really know why I got interested in the latter... I didn't know the author, had never heard about the book, and didn't contain any clues as to what the hell it was about. But it wasn't an expensive book, so I trusted my guts and bought it anyways (I bought 1993 too). I actually do that quite often and I usually end up enjoying the book. This was no exception. It's not an amazing book, that's true. But it's pretty enjoyable. The fact that it's from the perspective of a 9-year-old, and the lengths the author goes to to make sure you don't forget that, is sometimes annoying: like "mispronunciation" of some words, repetition of certain sentences, stuff like that. It's not meant for children, though, no way! There's not much I could write about the story that wouldn't ruin it for you because if you don't have at least a little suspense in the beginning it will be hard to read it all... but if you like little fables that try and tell really heavy stories with a light mood you'll definitely enjoy this... I guess that was the whole point, because the theme in itself has been touched on by so many people before (and yes, with so much more talented) that were it not for the whole fable thing, it would be hard to justify why the hell do we need another little sad story on the matter...

Belo Horizonte

OK, I've been neglecting this blog for quite a few weeks now... bad, bad, bad! Some updates are in order. First of all, I'm happy to announce I'm already in Belo Horizonte, my new home for the foreseeable future. I'm living in a flat/hotel right now, and desperately looking for an apartment. The hotel is nice enough, unbelievably close to my job, like less than 5 minutes away. The job is amazing: the environment, the people, the perks, everything is great. And, well, the job in itself is really cool too, even though it'll still take me a few weeks to get up to speed and actually do anything useful at all. Until then, it's basically reading, watching lectures and doing exercises. But I'm completely loving it!!!!
Now, going a little back in time, the last couple of weeks of the year were really nice back home in Salvador; a lot partying, family and old friends. It was a nice little break before starting off here in BH. I made a big mistake though: I should've gone back to Campinas for my car before coming to BH; now looking for apartments is a real pain in the ass. I'll probably end up renting a car to do it. I need to find an apartment, pronto!!!! The thing is, my job is in a pretty expensive neighborhood. If I wanna walk to work I'll either have to take a tiny, one-room apartment or spend the best part of my salary on rent. The alternative is to live 10- to 15-minute drive away and pay less than that for a pretty cool, cozy apartment. I guess that, as much as I wanted the convenience of walking to work, I want a nica home even more, so I'll be looking for apartments mostly on other neighborhoods (therefore the car is so much more important!!!).
Unfortunately I haven't really taken any pictures yet, but I will soon. I'm really enjoying the whole experience, and January is gonna be a hectic month since I'll go to Salvador twice and to Campinas once... oh, yeah, and I have to finish my master thesis.... oh, yeah!!!, and I have to get up to speed with all the stuff I gotta learn before I can actually do any useful work... wow!!!!
Wish me good luck... ;-)

My Last Days in Australia

This is long overdue, but I finally got over my lazy ass to post about my last few days in Sydney. It was a mix of some very dull moments and some very interesting ones. I guess there are basically three very interesting things to talk about from these last few days in Sydney: first and shortest of all, if you are ever in Sydney and are a fan of chocolate (specifically, Lindt chocolate!!) go to Darling Harbour and look for the Lindt Café!!!! It's in one of the most pleasant spots in Sydney (Darling Harbour), and the chocolate is, of course, amazing!!! You can actually have a Lindt-chocolate Milkshake (not at all overpriced, by the way), and I'll tell you it's the best chocolate milkshake I've ever had. They also have all sorts of other delicious chocolaty things worth a try, by do not forget to try the milkshake!!!! I wish I'd taken a photo... :-(

The second thing worth mentioning was the Powerhouse Museum. It's supposed to be "The Hippest Museum in Sydney" and, even though I haven't been to any other, my guess is that it is. It's a pretty unusual museum with expos on fashion, music, Aussie history, science... whatever you want, they probably do it!! It's pretty cool, albeit a bit too busy; I saw expos on the history of design, australian music, history of the steam engine, evolution of artificial inteligence and success stories of aussie "inventiveness". All of them pretty cool, even with a layman's introduction to the Turing Test (which was pretty surprising, pic on the right)... they even had an expo on Lady Di, but it cost something like $4 to get in and I already had my share for the day...

The third, and coolest of all, was the walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, two of the three big Sydney beaches (the third being Manli, which I'd already been to the first time around). If you're ever in Sydney, drop anything else for this walk!!! (well, maybe not the Opera House and Circular Quay area, but you know what I mean...) It's awesome!!!! It's a pretty long walk, though... and after a certain point you kinda get sick of it, it all gets a little repetitive... so, if you're not up for the whole mileage of the walk, just do the first half, it's definitely the better half!!! Bondi is a pretty nice beach, even if a little touristy and crowded... too many surfists!!!! Right next to the beach, at the very beginning of the scenic walk, there's one of the coolest pools ever, basically in the ocean (hopefully you can get it from the photos!!). Pretty cool, hey???
Basically the walk is a pathway right by the ocean. Maybe the photos will give you a good idea of what I mean. Well, just don't miss it.

What I Read in Oz

Tou de volta em casa, então vou voltar a postar em inglês...

I'm back home! After a wonderful month in Australia (hopefully you've seen the photos), I'm back in Campinas and eager to post about the books I read while I was there. Well, I don't know about you guys but I need a book when I'm traveling: there's just so many different situations when you feel like reading something good that I'm sure I'll be constantly regretting it if I don't bring any good book with me. With that in mind, I bought a book before leaving Brasil: Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce. I'd tried Joyce before (Finnegan's Wake, if you are curious), with very little success. But, I don't know why, I thought this would be easier. Well, it sure is easier, but not quite easy enough. The thing is, a good travel-book has to be "easy-reading" too, in the sense that it shouldn't require too much concentration to get through: definitely I'd made a bad choice this time. Consequently, my first couple of weeks in Australia were pretty much bookless. When I got to Adelaide though, I got a pretty cool gift from my dear hostess, a book called Down Under, by Bill Bryson. Bryson has one of the best jobs ever: he basically goes on a trip and then writes a book about it. And he is a pretty good writer too, very funny, very enticing. He also does his homework pretty well, talking a lot about Australia's history, fairly superficial but interesting opinions/analysis of its current situation, some unusual (but really interesting) destinations. It's the perfect companion for a guy who is backpacking through Australia and I wished I'd bought it before I went; I might've changed some of my plans based on his experiences: I think I'd probably put visiting the Outback higher up on my priority list. I quite enjoyed the book, and may even buy some of his other books, just gotta figure out what's my next destination.... :-)
By the time I was flying back here, I'd almost finished the book so I knew that I'd need something to get me through the endless flight back home. So, everything kinda fell into place when I was walking around Sydney, the day before my flight, and I wandered into this cheap bookstore after seeing Slam, the new book by Nick Hornby on the window. Nick Hornby, for those that don't know it yet, is one of my favorite author's, having written such gems as High Fidelity, About a Boy, Fever Pitch and A Long Way Down. I just had to buy it.
First of all, a word of warning is in place: this is a book about a teenager written for teenagers. Even though its topic is pretty serious (teenage pregnancy), I am, by no means, its target audience. Having said that, I found it a pretty enjoyable harmless reading; it's not brilliant and it's not up to the standard of his previous books (always keeping in mind, I'm not the intended audience here). I don't know if it's already been too long since I was a teenager, but Sam is a really annoyingly silly, Tony Hawk-crazed, very "teenagy" guy, whereas Alicia is this centered, well-balanced, unbelievably pretty girl. He is in fact so childish that you just get pissed off most of the time reading the book (since its told from his perspective, knowing what he thinks sometimes is just irritating). But it is a pretty interesting book about a pretty rough subject, with intricate , well-developed characters (Sam and Alicia, for example, change quite a lot throughout the book). And it feels quite realistic too. It was an enjoyable book overall, just below his previous work because of the whole "teenage-book" thing.

Written to the sound of A.C. Newman, Badly Drawn Boy, Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley...

Por que voce vai comer McDonald's quando vier pra Australia

da
A Australia tem umas coisas interessantes, monetariamente falando: algumas coisas sao estranhamente caras aqui. Comer eh razoavelmente caro. Beber (alcoolicos ou nao-alcoolicos) eh impossivelmente caro. Mas o McDonald's, Deus o abencoe, eh barato. :-)

Vamos fazer algumas comparacoes de precos: a primeira coisa a dizer eh que, antes de vir pra cah, eu paguei R$1,78 para cada AU$ (dolar australiano)... ou seja, a proporcao eh mais ou menos de 9/5. Vamos lah entao:

• Voce nao consegue comprar uma cerveja, equivalente a um chopp medio no Brasil, por menos do que AU$5,00 em bares/boates. As vezes, em algum Happy Hour, vc consegue algo melhor; mas, via de regra eh entre AU$5,50 e AU$7,00.
• Um cafe (espresso) custa entre AU$2,50 e AU$3,00
• Uma garrafa de agua de 600ml numa loja de conveniencias custa uns AU$3,00 (o mesmo que uma coca ou sprite)
• Voce nao consegue pedir um prato, de qq tipo, por menos do que AU$10,00
• Uma bola de sorvete nao custa menos do que AU$4,00
• Um sundae da McDonald's custa +-AU$2,50

Agora, sabe quanto custa a promocao (pequena) do BigMac (ou McChicken, Quarteirao, etc.)??? AUS$5,45!!!!! Pqp, eh barato demais!!!! +AU$0,50 pra promocao media ou +AU1,00 pra promocao grande... eh imbativel!!! O unico jeito de comer por menos que isso (e ficar satisfeito) eh cozinhar... entao, a conclusao eh de que se voce vai fazer mochilao pela Australia sozinho (oq tira completamente o, jah quase inexistente numa viagem como essa, tesao de cozinhar), voce vai comer muito McDonald's...

Mudando completamente de assunto, Havaianas realmente eh um sucesso mundial!!! Voce as encontra em todo lugar aqui na Australia pra vender pelo "justo" preco de AU$25,00!!! E eles tem varias "havaianas alternativas" tambem, inclusive que alegam serem marcas brasileiras (das quais eu nunca ouvi falar)... rpz, o publicitario que bolou esse reposicionamento da Havaianas para produto cult eh um genio!!!!

Mais uns dias em Cairns e a volta para Sydney

ra minha sorte, o tempo abriu e os meus ultimos tres dias em Cairns foram maravilhosos: a balada continuou boa soh q durante o dia tinha muito sol, lagoa (na verdade uma piscina bem grande) e, na sexta-feira, eu peguei um barco pra conhecer a Grande Barreira de Corais. Bem, na verdade eu tinha ido jah a Barreira na terca-feira com John, pra Fitzroy Island, mas nao acho que aquilo contou muito nao: o tempo tava horrivel, nao dava pra ver nada, a gente nao teve muita orientacao... enfim, nao considerei muito aquela primeira ida. Dessa vez, no entanto, a Barreira foi tudo que prometeu: eu fiz inclusive um mergulho guiado, o que foi fantastico!!!! Agora, com certeza, vou fazer o curso quando voltar aih pro Brasil!!!!!



Meus primeiros diasem Cairns foram broxantes: o tempo tava uma merda, eu tinha acabado de me despedir de uma galera massa que tinha continuado a excursao pra Alice Springs (meio do deserto da Australia, oq tinha me deixado com uma pontinha de inveja). Oq salvou um pouco eh q a balada em Cairns eh boa, especialmente um lugar para mochileiros chamado Wool Shed. Mas, p

De Adelaide para Cairns

Aproveitei mais uns dias em Adelaide, o tempo tava maravilhoso, sol brilhando, praia todo dia, andei de caiaque no sabado, fomos pra uns barzinhos de noite (nao tenho foto de nada disso, por isso tou contando meio as pressas :-) )... domingo seis horas da manha tava de pe pra pegar o aviao as 8:00... por volta das 11 pousei em Cairns, extremo nordeste da Australia, a cidade mais turistica com acesso a Grande Barreira de Corais. Como o tempo em Adelaide tava maravilhoso eu, por algum motivo idiota, achei que isso se estenderia a Cairns: ledo engano... encontrei um tempo mega-chuvoso, bem feio por aqui... aparentemente a estacao chuvosa acabou de comecar e deve durar pelo verao inteiro... fazer oq, ne?? Fiquei meio em duvida sobre oq fazer... curso de mergulho, soh snorkelling, mergulho guiado (nao precisa do curso, um instrutor fica com vc o tempo todo)... conheci entao um brother ingles que fez rafting por aqui e ia viajar amanha pra Fitzroy Island, uma das ilhas que fica na barreira... viagem de um dia mesmo, pega o barco de manha cedo e volta a tarde... a ideia de rafting me pareceu interessante, nunca tive a vergonha na cara de ir em Brotas depois de sete anos de Campinas.... gostei da ideia e comprei o pacote: vou fazer rafting daqui a uns 30 mins., passarei a tarde no rio. Amanha de manha pego o mesmo barco que ele e vou pra Fitzroy Island... chegando lah decido oq fazer: se quero soh fazer snorkelling, pagar pelo mergulho guiado, fazer umas trilhas na ilha, ficar relaxando na praia, lendo... seja oq for, vai ser massa... dah pra alugar umas cameras a prova d'agua pra tirar fotos do mergulho!!!!! Acho q vou rachar o aluguel com John (o brother ingles): vem a camera (10 Megapixels!!) e um cartao de memoria de 2Gb... ou seja, com um pouco de sorte (o sol tem q aparecer pelo menos um pouco), amanha vou colocar uma cacetada de fotos por aqui... :-)

A proposito, John fez Bungy Jump ontem... aqui eh um dos pontos mais populares pra isso na Australia... eu pensei bastante na ideia, mas nao tenho coragem nao... fica pra proxima...

E, como eu havia prometido anteriormente, algumas fotos da balsa de Manli Beach pra Sydney no por-do-sol... bjos e abracos!!!!!


Sim, eu tou em pelo menos uma dela... :-)




E a grande campea....