http://www.wehopewemadeituptoyou.com/

Yes, you have. Thank you.

Dave Matthews and Ben Harper come to Brazil, together

I wrote a few weeks ago that if I had to choose a band to watch live while I was in the US, it'd be DMB. Well, no need to soak about missing them back then, now they're coming to São Paulo, and, as if that weren't good enough, they're bringing Ben Harper along!!!! Anybody else going?!?!





Can you imagine seeing this live?!

Dorival Caymmi [1914-2008]

Morreu o inventor da Bahia, deixando um estado inteiro órfão.

Dark Knight

Walking back home from the movies tonight I must've thought of a few dozen ways to start this post. I've settled with stating that this movie will blow our mind away. It's really late and I'm lazy, so I'll probably not write as much as the movie deserves, but I'll say this: I probably watched both the best movie of the year and the best comic book-based movie ever made. It's that good. It's long, it's unbelievably tense, it's smart, it's disturbing, it's genius. Batman Begins was incredible, but Dark Knight is so much more! Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan are their usual, incredibly talented selves, as in the previous movie. Good ol' Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are still there. But now there's so much more to it...
I'm sure you've heard this before, but Heath Ledger is simply uncanny, he just got the Joker. And I think "getting" goes a long way in describing this movie: the writer got the characters. The story in itself doesn't come straight from any one book that I know. But, somehow, he just got the characters: he was able to distill all the decades of Batman, Joker and Harvey Dent in an amazing, brilliant, two and a half hour long story. I'm in awe, and I definitely will watch it again, this time in IMAX, before I fly back to Brasil. Summer has been good to us so far, making up for last year: Indy, Iron Man, Hulk, Wanted, Sarah Marshall, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E. But we got a clear winner: just go watch it and then tell me what you think.

If I could choose one band

If I could choose one band (realistically, no Beatles or Pink Floyd here) to watch live while I'm up here in the US, it would Dave Matthews Band. Their albums are amazing, but from all I can gather they're even more stunning live. This is Dancing Nancies, from the concert they did in Central Park where he does an amazing intro to the song (the bartender bid). I love it when artists change their songs for live performances in a way that you actually believe it's showing a little bit more about how they're feeling at that specific moment...

By the way, "Dancing Nancies", as I recently learned, is idiom for transvestite prostitutes... Just for that, I think it's worth putting the lyrics here (after the video).





And so We Say,
And so We Say,
And So We Say,
Bartender Please,
I Know It's Late,
I Know Last Call has come and gone,
But Why Don't You Fill Me Up With One More Long, Long Drink,
And Then I Go Home,
C'mon Hook Me Up,
Bartender Hook Me Up,
Lock The Door, start countin the money If You Need To But,
C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon,
Hook Me Up,
Bartender Please,
Won't You?

I Wasn't Planning On Gettin' Drunk Tonight But,
It Seemed Like The Right Decision Tonight,
Luck Would Have It,
She Stood Me Up,
And Now My son,
Now My Son,
I Was Wondering If,I Was Wondering If,I Was Wondering If I Might Have Been Somebody Other Than Myself,
If I Could Have Been Somebody Other Than Myself,
Anyone,

Well Could I Have Been,
A Parking Lot Attendant,
Could I Have Been,
A Millionaire up There On fifth Avenue,
Oh Could I Have Been,
Lost Late At Night Somewhere In Central Park,
Could I Have Been,
a mistake,
Well Could I Have Been,
Anyone Other Than Me,
Could I Have Been,
(Oh) Anyone Other Than Me (Oh)
Could I Have Been,
Anyone Other Than Me,
Could I Have Been,
Anyone,

He Stands Touch His Hair His Shoes Untied,
Tounge-gapping Stare,
Could I Have Been,
A Magnet For Money,
Could I Have Been Anyone Other Than Me,
twenty three I'm So Tired Of Life Such A Shame You throw It All Away,
The Images Grow Darker Still,
Could I Have Been Anyone Other Than Me
And Then I,
I Look Up At The Sky,
My Mouth Is Open Wide,
Lick and Taste What’s The Use In Worrying,
What’s The Use In Hurrying,
Turn turn We Almost Become Dizzy,

I Am Who I Am,
Who I Am,
Well, Who Am I?
Requesting Some Elightment,
Could I Have Been Anyone Other Than Me,
And Then I'll,
Sing And Dance,
I'll Play For You Tonight,
The Thrill Of It All,
Dark Clouds May Hang On Me Sometimes,
But I'll Work It Out,
And Then I,
I Look Up At The Sky,
My Mouth Is Open Wide,
Lick and Taste What’s The Use In Worrying,
What’s The Use In Hurrying,
Turn Turn We Almost Become Dizzy,

Falling Out Of a World Of Lies,
Could I Have Been A Dancing Nancie, (ooh)
A Dancing Nancie,(I Could Have Been Anyone)
Could I Have Been Anyone Other Than Me
And Then I'll,
Sing And Dance,(La La La Hey La La La Hey La La La)
Sing And Dance,(La La La Hey La La La Hey La La La)
Sing And Dance,
I'll Play For You Tonight,
The Thrill Of It All,
Dark Clouds May Hang On Me Sometimes,
But I'll Work It Out
And Then I,
Look Up At The Sky,
My Mouth Is Open Wide,
Lick and Taste
What’s The Use In Worrying,
What’s The Use In Hurrying,
Turn Turn We Almost Become Dizzy

Mount Rainier

A lot of really cool stuff has happened in this trip to the US, and I'm still hoping I'll get around to blogging about them sooner or later. But this weekend I did such a cool trip that I just had to get the photos online so I could share them here!!
These were all taken this saturday at Mount Rainier, a little over 2 hours away from Seattle. Amazing place!

Mount Rainier

Wanted

Angelina Jolie is hot. Don't worry, I don't intend to just restate the obvious here, but it had to be said. Now that I got it out of my system, I can talk a little bit about the actual movie. I've been seeing trailers for this for quite a few weeks now, and it impressed me a lot. It looked so cool, may be even a new Matrix (only the "redefining what action looks like" part of Matrix, not the smart philosophical part). This, according to my good friend Diego, is the adaptation of a great comic book (as usual, the book is supposed to be less simplistic and all). The movie is great fun, it really is, it just fell a little short of my expectations.
First for the good things: have I mentioned Angelina Jolie is damn hot?! :-) Action sequences are awesome. That's it, but what else do you need, right?! (The ending is pretty cool too, but if I say anything about it, I'll probably spoil it.)
Bad stuff: story is simplistic and completely ill-explained. Also, it's just too much: there is no action sequence that is even remotely realistic, and a handful of them are so damn impossible that you're just seating there saying "What the fuck"?!?! By the way, they even use the Matrix trick of starting the movie with anmore-than-impossible action sequence that hits you in the face with a "people do impossible shit in this movie" warning. But, unlike Matrix, there is no plausible-in-their-universe explanation for why people can do such things, as here you're left with: heart rate goes abruptly up and everything slows down because they got some much adrenalin in their brain. Come on!!!!! There is not enough slow motion in the whole fucking world for that!!
Finally, that over-the-top unrealistic quality and the lack of any mildly interesting characters, aside from Angelina Jolie's and, maybe, James McAvoy's, is where the movie falls short. I don't think anybody will be remembering or copying this movie in a year or so from now, but it's definitely good, friday-night fun.

Alanis Morissette & M. Night Shyamalan

I'm sure you've all asked yourself once or twice, what do Alanis Morissette and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan have in common. Well, rejoice, for now I'll tell you exactly that. Both of them came out of nowhere in the '90s (this is sort of a half-true 'cause Alanis was a teen pop diva in Canada, but she had been kinda of forgotten by them... anyway, bear with me) and took the world b assault: Jagged Little Pill, Morissette's 1995 sort-of-debut (again, teen pop diva) was the biggest selling album ever by a female artist and got mostly rave reviews; Shyamalan's sort-of-debut, Sixth Sense, was the surprise hit of the year, got a bunch of Oscar nominations, and made him the rising star in Hollywood.
Then came their follow-up works: Supposed Former Infactuation Junkie (probably my favorite Alanis album, not very popular opinion though), Unbreakable, Signs, Under Rug Swept, MTV Unplugged, The Village, So-Called Chaos. With each new release, less and less people liked them; I, on the other hand, was firmly believing they were still cool, as I mostly enjoyed all of Shyamalan's movies (except for that stupid ending in Signs... what the hell were you thinking, Nighty??!) and it would take a lot to get me off Alanis... and then came 2008.
I've been reading about Alanis' new album for a few months now, and ever since I came to the US, I haven't been to one movie and not seen the trailer for The Happening. This, I thought naively, was it: finally they would return to their former glory and I would be proven right. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about Alanis' album, but the trailer for The Happening was really cool, I really thought it would be good. Then came the bombs... Flavors of Entanglement sucks. The Happening is one of the worst movies of the year, the year of Speed Racer and Vantage Point!! What happened, guys?!?!
Flavors of Entanglement is derivative and electronic-y, which seems to be the way Alanis is headed since Under Rug Swept. Honestly, the only good song of the album is Not As We, a piano ballad where there is basically no room for the over-production that haunts the rest of the album. The thing I always loved about Alanis was her lyrics, but the music in this album is so uninteresting that I haven't really gotten interested in checking out the lyrics (well, except for Not As We, that is). And even though I'm pretty sure Alanis can still write, I don't think I'll be looking at those lyrics anytime soon.
The Happening is bad. No, strike that, it's terrible. There's not one really good thing about it. Well, Shyamalan can still direct (sort of), there are some chilling moments, but that's it. The acting is horrible (can that be the same Mark Whalberg from The Departed?!?!?). The script is a joke. I know why all those people are killing themselves: they saw the damn movie!!!
So there you go: what do Alanis and Nighty have in common? They both showed up with masterpieces and took the world by surprise in the '90s. Then they both grew less and less popular, but kept me as a fan while losing basically everybody else. And now, in june/2008, they've both lost me. Pity.

Victoria Williams' Crazy Mary

Holy shit, just found out one of my favorite Pearl Jam isn't really by Pearl Jam!!!!! Now I definitely have to look for some other stuff from this Victoria Williams girl.

Damien Rice's B-Sides

    I kinda ran into Damien Rice's B-Sides the other day, while roaming around a Virgin Megastore (yeah, I love doing that... Virgin, Barnes & Noble, Borders... when are we getting those in Brasil?!!?! Well, at least we have Fnac). I immediately picked it up, seeing I'd read about it at some point but never really listened to it. It's kind of a mixed bunch: on the one hand you have three tracks that are songs from O: live version of Delicate, and instrumental and demo versions of Volcano. From this bunch, I'd say the interesting one is the demo, but just for the whole historic curiosity. On the other hand you have another bunch of songs that fit well in the whole O ambience, but aren't up to the standard of the album (and I can only assume were thus discarded). And then there's "Woman Like a Man". I'm fucking addicted to this song now, and the fact that Barra, the guy who is traveling around with me, now can't stop singing it isn't helping. It's a great song, I can only figure it wasn't in O because it really doesn't fit the mood of the rest of the album, being much more "nervous" (yeah, I couldn't find a better word! Listen to the damn song and pick an adjective you like!! Why do we have to do everything for our readers?!?!). Check the video below, and hopefully you too won't able to stop the damn "Woman like a man like a woman like a man..." in your head. Oh, I put the lyrics right afterwords, and if you have any ideas about what the hell he is trying to say, please share it with me, I'm pretty curious myself... and this video is of him singing the song @ BBC, so he cleaned up the lyrics... what exactly does "MUCKED inside out means"?? :-)

I need a piss,
I wanna hate,
Fuck it up, come.
My love,
Eat your meat,
Keep your teeth, run.
You lost me,
You cost me,
You taught me of me in the end.
We're bad,
What we do.
Stupid fools.

You wanna get boned,
You wanna get stoned,
You wanna get a room like no-one else.
You wanna be rich,
You wanna be kitsch,
You wanna be the bastard of yourself.
You wanna get burned,
You wanna get turned,
You wanna get fucked inside out.
You wanna be ruled,
You wanna be fooled,
You wanna be a woman like a man,
Like a woman like a man.

A woman like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, you like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, woman like a man, like a woman like a man, woman like a man
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
A woman like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, woman like a man
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
'Cause it really wasn’t worth the ride.

Need a hit?
Wanna wait,
Suck it up, cum.
My love,
Eat your meat,
Itchy feet, run.
You reach me,
You bleach me,
You teach me of things so familiar.
We're bad,
What we do.
Stupid fools.

You wanna get boned,
You wanna get stoned,
You wanna get a room like no-one else.
You wanna be rich,
You wanna be kitsch,
You wanna be the bastard of yourself.
You wanna get burned,
You wanna get turned,
You wanna get fucked inside out.
You wanna be ruled,
You wanna be fooled,
You wanna be a woman like a man, like a woman like a man.

A woman like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, woman like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Like a man, like a woman like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, woman like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
'Cause it really wasn’t worth the ride.

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

You wanna get boned,
You wanna get stoned,
You wanna get a room like no-one else.
You wanna be rich,
You wanna be kitsch,
You wanna be the bastard of yourself.
You wanna get burned,
You wanna get turned,
You wanna get fucked inside out.
You wanna be ruled,
You wanna be fooled,
You wanna be a woman like a man, like a woman, like a, like a man...

Like a man...
Like a man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man...
Like a man, man, man, man, man, man...
Like a man.

Like a man, like a man, like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, like a man, like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Woman like a man, like a man, like a man.
'Cause it really wasn’t worth the ride) (Really wasn’t worth the ride)

Whoa oh oh
Like a man, like a man, like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Like a man, like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
Like a man, like a man, like a man, like a man.
I’ll get a cheaper ticket next time...
A woman like a man, a woman like a man, like a woman like a man, like a man.
Oh.
It really wasn’t worth the ride.