"Only in New York, Literally."

I can tell you how happy I am to be able to watch 'Lost', Season 2, buying it from iTunes as it's shown in the U.S. It makes me feel less... left behind in Brazil. I loved Season 1 but Season 2 is so much better...

Pig Radio: alternative music.

Madonna, Madonna, Madonna: the video for 'Hung Up' - very 'Flashdance'. Via erikapalomino.

Saint Jude.

Today is St. Jude's day and I'm off to Itamogi, where my father lives and built a church devoted to him (the saint).

And where, I believe, I'll be offered as a human sacrifice...

Top.

Listen to a sample of Madonna's rocker moment from her new album: "I Love New York". Via erikapalomino.

BlogCounterBlog, Juan's new project where two opposing views on a subject are presented - his' and of the hottie from The Conjecturer. Great idea!

"Hello, I'm Amanda Lepore." Scary Sex Talk.

Eighty South Street.

Santiago Calatrava seems to be everywhere right now, including The Met where they are showing his sculptures - the basis/inspiration for a lot of his structures, like the Eighty South Street Tower.

"Eighty South Street Tower would be the most original skyscraper to go up in the United States in many years. It would restore New York to a place where innovative architecture is generated, not merely acquired. And as the vision of a private developer, the tower rebukes all the hollow claims of boldness and excitement our builders habitually assert." New York Times

"The building will be Mr. Calatrava's first residential project in the United States. The principal units of the building are 45-foot glazed cubes, each of which contains four floors of residential space. Twelve cubes are cantilevered, in steplike fashion, up the building's vertical core, which in plan is a slender concrete rectangle. The core contains the building plant, main elevators, service elevator, and emergency stair, so that usable space within the cubes is maximized." Santiago Calatrava WebSite

Brazilian Funk.

Deize Tigrona, funkeira from City of God (the actual place, not the movie) stole the scene during M.I.A.'s concert in Rio. M.I.A. sampled one of her songs without asking for it. When she got to Rio, she looked Tigrona up, they soon became friends and M.I.A. invited her to sing in the concert: "You can kill me now. I can die. I'm going to wake up tomorrow trying to believe it was not a dream," Tigrona said after the concert, her first major exposure. People went crazy during her performance.

Brazilian funk is urban, poor and black. And it is the freshest cultural manifestation going on. It's reviled by the 'elite' but it's getting more popular by the minute.

Listen to Injeção by Deize Tigrona here.

Mr. V still loves M.I.A. even if she is selling Honda and stealing from poor black singers from the slums.

Sin: Gluttony.

Chocolate Pizza from Piú Pizza e Birra: Designer pizza is one the most popular food categories in Belo Horizonte.

Brazilians reject the ban.

The referendum was not about if a citizen should or should not have a gun to defend himself against the escalating violence.

Much less if he is in favor of life or death, peace or war.

It was about prohibiting the commerce of guns and ammunition - prohibition that does not exist anywhere else in the world.

The result of this prohibition would be an incentive to smuggling and an emporwement of the criminals themselves.

In a one month period I went from excitement about the referendum to total discredit. In the end, I'm happy that Brazilians rejected the ban. At the least, it showed they couldn't be swooned by all the celebrities that endorsed the 'yes' campaign and brought nothing to the discussion.

Vintage.

In my 'beattle' with my cousin Júnia.

Report.

On Oct 23, 2005, at 9:37 AM, Mr.DF@aol.com wrote:
the roxy was packed.... it was fun ... she spoke... she made a few jokes..... said some nice things to the audience ... and said she just couldn't be in nyc and not go dancing with the boys ... she looked great! she had the place wild!!! it was filmed sooooo who knows???

Judy exposed.

"Judy admitted in the story that she 'got it totally wrong' about WMD 'If your sources are wrong,' she said, 'you are wrong.' But investigative reporting is not stenography."

Maureen Dowd | Woman of Mass Destruction

"Judy told The Times that she plans to write a book and intends to return to the newsroom, hoping to cover "the same thing I've always covered - threats to our country." If that were to happen, the institution most in danger would be the newspaper in your hands."

"I like flaws and feel more comfortable around people who has them. I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."

Augusten Burroughs in Magical Thinking.

Family.

When I was in NY last week, everybody asked me about my aunt, whom they all got to know well while I was 'sleeping'. She had flown in from Brazil to take care of me when I was in the hospital.

So here is a picture taken this week at my cousin Junia's birthday.

Is M.I.A. selling out? BS thinks so (he sent me the link). I saw the ad in movie theatres and loved it.

Airline Meals, that fascinating subject, has its own website. Via F&B

Wiiiiiiilma!: "Anthropomorphized hurricanes are funny."???

On why I'm against the referendum...

...and why I will cancel my vote.

From today's The Financial Times: Brazil's gun ban referendum misses its target.

"As an exercise in particip-ative democracy, it seems badly flawed. Brazilians will vote in a mandatory referendum tomorrow to decide the question, "Should the sale of firearms and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?"

There should be little doubt about the answer. Gunshot wounds kill more than 107 Brazilians every day, more than traffic accidents and fewer only than heart and brain disorders.

(...)

The question posed is confusing. Those who are against guns must vote Yes (doubly counter-intuitively, Yes is number two on the electronic voting machines) and those for them, No (number one). A daily newspaper, O Estado de S. Paulo, recently put the question to 100 people in the centre of São Paulo: 29 of them got it wrong (that is, they voted against the ban when they were in favour of it, and vice versa).

(...)

Instead of drawing on the evidence, the Yes campaign initially relied on singers, actors and models issuing vague exhortations along the lines of "give peace a chance". That has alienated many potential supporters. Raimundo Fagner, an ageing pop star, struck a chord when he said: 'Whenever a load of artists start talking, you know there's something wrong. They're a bunch of sheep who say what they're told to and don't think about anything'"

Bottomless Pit.

'The Fountain of Ego', artwork by Marcio Sampaio.

Favorite Blogs.

Farpas & Bitaites is not only in portuguese but it is also from Portugal - tren-dy!!! It's a pop culture round up and really good at that. Apparently they are becoming so popular that they have started providing "an abbreviated english translation of the posts".

Oliver Google Kai.

"A lebanese couple named their son after the Google search engine. And inevitably the baby already has a blog." [Farpas & Bitaites]

'When we first knew that my wife Carol is pregnant, I said, 'we will name our child Google.' Everyone laughed and did not take me seriously. My brother said, 'Yeah, name the next one yahoo fuji nikon.' [A son named Google]

Google Kai googled.

NYU.

"Where are your wireless manners?
As public unplugs, rudeness seems to be getting worse" New Yorker Cartoon by Robert Leighton.

What's up with elimination communication? Why is it all the sudden everywhere? I first read about it in this NYT Op-Ed (TimesSelect but free in the HT). And why wasn't it around when I was born? I would probably be much more functional now. "Thanks to Freud, we also see the bathroom as a snake pit of psychological danger, and believe that the only way to prevent scarring a child for life is to let him or her come to the toilet in his or her own time, assuming there will be a diaper pinned on for as long as it takes."


"Harriet Miers shared a little secret about herself on her application to be an associate justice: "Earlier this year, I received notice that my dues for the District of Columbia bar were delinquent and as a result, my ability to practice law in D.C. had been suspended."" "Naughty Harry: Lawyering without a License" by Maureen Dowd. My friend Bonhomme Soleil made me very happy by finding a way around TimesSelect - t r u t h o u t has transcriptions of the NYT Op-Ed. Thank you!

'Should the commerce of arms and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?'

The referendum is this Sunday and I am most likely to vote não which does not mean I am in favor of violence. In Brazil, it is already ilegal to carry a gun and extremely difficult to buy one - last year only about 5,000 weapons were comercialized in the country. Criminals do not shop for them retail.

The referendum has been manipulated to come across as a vote for Public Security - the biggest concern for brazilian citizens - and it's not. It has been politicized to the point that, unfortunatelly, voting against it "has become a protest against everything that is going on"

The commerce of arms is not the problem and the referendum is just a smoke screen.

On Oct. 23, Latin America's biggest country will vote in a referendum that asks a single direct question, 'Should the commerce of arms and ammunition be prohibited in Brazil?' While other countries have banned guns, supporters of both the yes and no positions here say that this is the first time anywhere in the world that the electorate is being called on to decide the issue.

The vote, in which participation is obligatory (shirkers will be fined), is meant to ratify a highly restrictive gun control law that went into effect at the end of 2003, which has made it extremely difficult for ordinary citizens to legally buy, sell or own guns and ammunition. That legislation's phased application called for this referendum to decide on an all-but-total limit." [New York Times]

It happened last week.

"In a gray, sodden week, one that pushed New York toward a new record for October rainfall, the city echoed with strange linguistic innovations."

Back in Belo Horizonte after a week in New York.

It was the week I realized I can't live outside: "Excuse me, are you from New York or from outside?" I almost didn't leave yesterday. There was a fire at Queensboro Bridge and the ensuing traffic jam took me close to loosing my flight. I'm convinced it was a plot to keep me here.

It felt good not doing anything special. I like that. Had breakfast at Murray's every morning and lunch at Spice. Walks and digressions with Mr. DF. Snaxx and Beer Blast. Even danced a little bit to Ole' Junior.

It was just a big date with New York City.

Joe told me, over "thai lunch with a brazilian between a table of palestinians and another of french", that my blog is a tone poem to NY (I was telling him I was considering quitting it). I don't agree on its artistic merits but it does have a muse. And I need to be near her.

Message to Steven: you sound just like me here. I wish you luck completing your trip unscathed.

Favorite blogs.

Although I change a few names here and there and of course engage in considerable hyperbole, the shit on this here website thingy is pretty much the truth.

I was telling Eric at Snaxx last Friday how refreshing I find his writing - he is totally genuine and brave in doing that. Definitely not a "hoax".

And, babe, you're looking damn hot!

"One can truly quench the thirst for happiness by paying attention to the tiny moments between the tiny moments." [Witold Riedel]

Downhill.

"Amid the biggest government corruption scandal in the nation's history, Brazilians sometimes don't know whether to laugh or cry." [Houston Chronicle]

Picture of the Brazilian Congress by Sérgio Lima for Folha de São Paulo

"Every promise includes assumptions, whether stated or not." [The Ethicist]

I miss NY. Already & still.

Mr. HO took us to D'or Ahn a new korean (sort of) restaurant on Tenth Ave between 22nd and 23rd Sts. Great overall experience: beautiful space, presentation and food.

I miss having food options. In Belo Horizonte you can choose between japanese or designer pizza if you want a 'dining experience'. The cultural reasons for this are too obscure for me to grasp. The city is up in the mountains, inland. Very homogenous in its population.

I miss falafels and thai and egg breakfasts. I miss bagels.

Let me count the ways...

I see blue.

I woke up in a good mood today after the great time I had at Snaxx last night and especially because I finally see blue.

Still raining.

No one much likes it when something—an empty cab, an out-of-service subway train, summer—goes by without stopping. It’s like a tiny taste of death. [The New Yorker]

The End of Gay Culture by Andrew Sullivan.

The Harriet And George Letters: "Cool!" That's her opinion of him and it speaks volumes.

And, in the meantime, President Bush's job-approval rating among African Americans has dropped to 2 percent, according to this.

As long as I say your name...

Mr.DF included me in this year's Yom Kippur Services at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (CBST) - New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Synagogue. The service was held in the Hammerstein Ballroom, a place I had been to before, among most of the same audience, in very different circumstances - it involved Victor Calderone.

The part that touched me the most was the Yizkor, where "the everlastingness of the soul is celebrated" by repeating a prayer for each loved one that has been lost: "As long as I say your name..."

Nilo
Ademir
Márcio Flávio
Mother

Pouring in New York.

My luck, of course: I have one week and so many things I want to do... I don't mind rain - but it is fucking pouring. I went out this morning and got so drenched I had to come back home (Mr. DF's, really) without getting anything done.

Some plans:
See friends.
Safe: Design Takes On Risk a design exhibition at MoMA.
Memling's Portraits at the Frick.
Diane Airbus at Robert Miller.
Laurie Anderson at Sean Kelly.
SNAXX.
Eagle Beer Blast.
Junior Vasquez at Cielo.
And see friends.

Seu Jorge in Belo Horizonte.

Seu Jorge played Belo Horizonte last night, first brazilian concert after an international tour. He is promoting a new brazilian release, Cru (Raw), which, confusingly, was his solo album debut abroad. The first album released in Brazil was Samba Esporte Fino (known everywhere else as Carolina), after he left the group Farofa Carioca.

The show had a rock concert format and feel: it was in an old downtown factory, had an opening act (no idea who, we were at the bar) and a DJ played afterwards (DJ Robinho, who also opened for Moby here in BH, recently) for a mostly white (?) and (very) young crowd.

Seu Jorge accomplished the amazing feat of bridging samba into the 21st century, dressing it modern, cool and acceptable for newer generations.

I've got a life.

"I've got a life 'though it refuses to shine.
I've got a life. It ain't over.
I've got a way and it is the only thing that's mine.
All I'm asking for is a little tenderness."

Eurythmics to Release New Single [arjanwrites music blog]

7 Habits of Highly Successful People.

1. Skiing
2. Yachting
3. Snorkeling
4. Golf
5. Polo
6. Dinner parties
7. Shopping

Via McSweeney's

TIM Festival 2005: Oct/24 - Frankie Knuckles and Body & Soul at the MoMA in Rio de Janeiro.

At the end of the rainbow: Based in São Paulo, Action DTVM (Distribuidora de Títulos e Valores Mobiliários), a financial company, opened a branch for gay clients so drag queens and transvestites won't be embarassed to show their id cards or have to wear a suit when in need of buying or selling foreign currency.

The Ones That Were Wrong For Him.

The book I'm reading.

If you like biographies, like Mr. DS does (and even if you don't), you must read Wings of Madness : Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight. More than just a biography, it is a portrait of the world at the beggining of the 20th century.

Almost unknown today except in his native Brazil (where he is a revered figure), Alberto Santos-Dumont was known throughout the world as 'a maverick among contemporary aeronauts.' Obsessed with the idea of flight from an early age, Santos-Dumont (1873-1932) was an eccentric genius whose inherited wealth allowed him to live in luxury in fin-de-siecle Paris, at first working on ballooning. After designing small, cigar-shaped, engine-powered vehicles, which he used for everything from traveling around Paris to circling the Eiffel Tower, he soon became one of the best-known men in the city. Later he built 'the world's first sports plane.' Hoffman expertly recaptures from the historical dustbin the many facets of this unique character who befriended the Rothschilds and Cartiers, ran in the same crowd as Marcel Proust and devoted his life to a singular passion unmatched even by the obsessive Wright Brothers during the early days of aviation, 'a time when the vast majority of Europeans and Americans had not yet traveled along the ground in an automobile.'

Almost Famous.

It's time that Bobby Cannavale become a star:

MUST-SEE ROLE He's the hot dog vendor who befriends Peter Dinklage in The Station Agent (2003).

WHY HE SHOULD BE A STAR He has hunky Latin looks and proven leading-man appeal in both straight and gay roles.

NEXT He costars with James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, and Kate Winslet in the forthcoming musical Romance and Cigarettes."

from Entertainment Weekly's list '10 actors who should be stars'.

Guns and Roses.

I cannot remember the last time I voted.

Living in New York for the last 18 years, I was excused from voting in Brazilian elections. Voting in Brazil is not only a right - it's a duty. What I believe is a good thing. I was always trying to convince my boyfriends to go out and vote during american elections: their apathy facing the process drove me crazy. I believe one's responsibility for omission is much bigger.

I cannot remember the last time I voted but I am sure I have never voted on a referendum.

On October 23rd, Brazilians will be asked to decide on a national gun ban.

This is the first time in the world this issue will be voted.

Recent survey shows that 80% of brazilians are in favor of the ban. I'm not so sure it will be the solution to the violence here, it will only make it harder for citizens to defend themselves.

The discussion is open.