Guess who is in town? And it's free.

Seu Jorge
Sunday, July 02, 2006
From 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage

If you have never been to a SummerStage Concert, you are missing one of the most quintessential NY experiences.

The lowest commom denominator.

I guess it is thanks to that (and the thousands of ads in the back pages of HX and Next), that guys in New York give you a funny look (thinking they will definitely get laid) when you say 'I'm Brazilian.' Made in Brazil

Still loving NY.

Cartoon from New Yorker

What do you mean by "you're pop·u·lar"?

1. of or relating to the general public


2. suitable to the majority: as
   a : adapted to or indicative of the understanding and taste of the majority (a popular history of the war)
   b : suited to the means of the majority : INEXPENSIVE (sold at popular prices)


3. frequently encountered or widely accepted


4. commonly liked or approved (a very popular girl)

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The view from the window.

My contribution to what seems to be an on-going meme. This is the view from the office I've been working from on 7th and 38th. Like Joe, I can't get tired of it - it's actually counter-productive.

Re-quote.

"Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna. Never will."

Joan Cusack's character to Melanie Griffith's character in 'Working Girl.'

Originally posted by I Am Your DJ.

Of Bloggers & Friends.

"Things that are as stupid as a gay circuit party": Eric has been consistently amusing me for a long time now.

I can't stop listening to Sean's Fragile Radio, Volume 4 - Cover Lovin’. Crazy with Nelly Furtado is sooooo beautiful. And it was not released comercially. Listen to it here. Then download, put in your iPod and listen to it some more.

Michael is in seventh heaven (how many are there, btw?). The movie is getting great reviews. Can't wait to see it. Michael was also the happiest person I ran into at the Pier dance. Good for him.

I miss KitchenBeard. But it seems SF is treating him rigtht.

Robocub: where are you?

More Hot Jews by Jimbo.

The Farmboyz took my favorite picture from Gay Pride 2006.

The future's so bright I need a new pair of aviators.

I feel I'm past my astrological hell and things are starting to improve: I had the best week since... wow, I really can't remember. I finally can see new possibilities ahead of me.

Just in time for the movie opening.

"You are Superman
You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others."




Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Pride 2006

And I will quote my friend on how pride weekend ended:

"The day closed with with some of my dearest friends gathered around me at the far end of the pier. Behind us, the Empire State Building stretched through the mist, bathed in lavender lights in honor of the day. To the accompaniment of John Paul Young's Love Is In The Air, the fireworks began and we turned to face the Hudson, arms around each other, our faces illuminated by the rockets in the sky and the love we have for each other. Two young boys near us broke into a joyously unrestrained swing dance and I leaned over to the Farmboyz and said, 'They are going to remember this moment for the rest of their lives.' I know I will."

And so will I.

I know what you mean.

In the first television interview since the birth of her daughter, Angelina Jolie speaks to CNN’s Anderson Cooper:

"You give a third of your income to refugees and other causes. Is that true?
Yeah.
That's incredible...
Yeah, well, I have a stupid income for what I do. You know what I mean?"

A good picture tells a story.

"SOMETIMES it takes a gardener to teach you how to smell the roses."

What, you don't watch the show ?

MADE IN BRAZIL: São Paulo Pride 2006. 2.5 million people. "In its 10th edition, it has become the biggest gay event in the world."

You see, everybody is somebody.

What I'm listening to: St. Elsewhere.

"Crazy! Gnarls Barkley 'Delete' Their UK #1 From the Charts"

The degree to which 'St. Elsewhere' succeeds as psychedelia is open to debate; at first exposure, it doesn't seem especially trippy or mind-altering. Burton claims there is a 'steep learning curve' to the album, because the unorthodox tempos and cinematic elements can be lost on casual listeners. This certainly does not seem to be the case with 'Crazy.' The learning curve on that ultra-accessible single was ridiculously low, which is probably why it worked. 'To have a record go to No. 1, you have to appeal to people who have no idea who you are or what you do,' Burton says. 'That's just the way it is. ' New York Times

I like 'Crazy', of course, specially after Sean pointed me out to Nelly Furtado's version of it but my favorite song in the album is 'Who Cares?'

Fairies.

Boston Gay Pride Parade 2006: the rain did not stop them.

Too see o pictures of pride events in other cities you can go to here! tv's Pride 06 Photoblog.

Brazilian Reality.

Forget corruption and even the upcoming presidential election. The most important question in the 'World Cup' Brazil right now has to be:

"Is Ronaldo fat? asks Brazil leader. President joins national debate about star striker's weight."

Image from Blog do Josias.

Boston Gay Pride Parade.

Pier Dance Volunteers Needed!

My friend Glenn asked me to post the following information:

"Gay Pride is right around the corner and with all the festivities going on, you may want to be involved in the "energy" of it all, but maybe want to cut back on your expenses or be in a "safe" space (from all the partying and all that that entails...).

Heritage of Pride (HOP) is looking for volunteers for both events for their Pier Parties. One is on Saturday (for the "girls" - real girls) Rapture 3 and the Sunday Party (Dance 20).

If you would like to volunteer you have to attend a training session":

To be a volunteer for either dance, you must attend one training session prior to the event and every volunteer is required to attend Orientation on the pier the day of the dance.

Training sessions will be held at The LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street on:

Saturday, June 17th at 3:30pm
or
Thursday, June 22nd from 6:00 to 8:00pm

Please contact Don Harley at donharley@nyc.rr.com, by return email to let him know which training session you will attend.

Child with child.

A ten year old girl became a mother yesterday in Brazil. Mother and baby are doing well. [Folha de São Paulo]

The father is a boyfriend and it's not a case of abuse, the paper says.

I'm highly disturbed by this but I couldn't find any further details - that kids are getting sexualized earlier in life is a sad effect of our culture: the missed (and so important) childhood. But are their bodies adapting and evolving as well?

More to come...

Hello Sailor!

Boston Gay Pride Parade.

Brazil-Croatia.

Today at 3pm is Brazil's first game in the World Cup. I spotted a lot of brazilian shirts on the streets of NY today and most of them where not being worn by brazilians.

If you are in the office, like me, you can take peaks at the game through the NYTimes Live blog.

Lame, I know. In Brazil it's a national holiday when there is a game and carnaval afterwards, if we win, of course.

UPDATE: Brad is in Brazil and have this to report, at 3:44pm: "Right now, here in Rio all the businesses have shut down. Except for the open-air eateries that have TV sets.

As I type this I can here the voice of the sportscaster echoing down the street where I'm staying along with all the horn blowing and the fire crackers.

They ain't kidding when they describe football here in Brazil as a religion."

DON'T KNOW SOCCER: "Citizens of the United States (especially the primarily English speaking ones) you need to get over yourselves about your indifference to this sport or anything else that people outside our country like that you don't."

IMPATIENTLY WAITING FOR: Nelly Furtado's new album 'Loose'

SCIENCE HARD AT WORK: Problem: Salt Sticks in the Shaker. Solution: Scientists have made salt granules that are almost round.

Fundamentals.

I heard or read somewhere - I don't want to be accused of plagiarizing - that after a certain age what matters (or what should matter) are the fundamentals of life. Quality vs quantity. The friends you made, for example.

I decided to go to Boston last weekend to spend time with my friend José because it was his birthday. We go way back - we use to play with the same dolls, we like to tell people.

I wanted to make him feel how much he matters to me: it was his weekend, it was all about him, even tough it also happened to be Gay Pride and there were all this events going on. I should be thanking him - and I am - for a great weekend. He makes me feel a better person.

Boston, Gay Pride Weekend.

View of the John Hancock Building - the old and the new - from the Stuart Street Block Party with DJ Tracy Young.

Superman, gay? No way?

"After weeks of Internet buzzing that the new Superman movie portrays the Man of Steel as gay, the director of the film issued a strong denial on Friday and said it was the most heterosexual character he has filmed."

"Fine."

"She's a drag queen impersonating a fascist."

"The problem with Coulter is that she is a form of camp, is she not? The minute you take her seriously, you lose grip on her reality." Andrew Sullivan

"You can accuse her of cynicism all you want, but the fact that she is one of the leading political writers of our age says something about the rest of us."

The World Financial Center.

MUST SEE TV: Jon Stewart v. Bill Bennett debating gay marriage. Well, Bill Bennett actually makes a fool of himself while being interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

Dobin-mushi.

Seafood broth steamed (and served) in a tea pot with shrimp, chicken & mushroom.

Mr. DF took me to dinner at Morimoto last night for my birthday. Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto's 12,000-square-foot restaurant is a sensory overload. A very pleasurable one. The place seems built for show. Huge as it is we could not get a table. Fine, we had planned to sit at the (24 seat) sushi bar anyway. Highlights were the spicy Morimotini (I know, shame on me), the dobin-mushi and an unbelievable soft shell crab roll.

At one point, Mr. DF said to me: 'See, if you were still in Belo Horizonte we would have missed this'.

Indeed.

While I would have missed getting to know a fabulous restaurant, more importantly, I would not have been able to be with him. He was/is my biggest motivator and if it were not for him I would not be here today. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

these pictures were taken with a cameraphone.

American silliness.

From Patently Silly, a site with real patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office:

Cordless Jump Rope
patent#: US 7037243

"To use the invention, a user holds a handle in each hand, and begins to simulate jumping rope while moving the handles in a circle with their hands and arms. The weighted ball or gear simulates the centrifugal action of a jump rope, thus delivering all the health benefits of jumping rope without any of the disadvantages of stumbling on the rope, having the rope hit the ceiling or the like."

"That's right, a jump-rope minus the rope. All that's left is two handles, so you jump over the pretend rope. Or if you are truly lazy, you can pretend to jump over the pretend rope." the globe and mail

And, as further proof of american ingenuity, there is also patent # US 6982161: "Process for the Utilization of Ruminant Animal Methane Emissions". But I'll leave this one alone.

7th Ave at 27th St.

Faith.

"A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.""

Nautical but Very Nice.

Picture from a recent walk in Brooklyn with Randy. And from today's New York Times:

When you pass Reliable Naval Tailoring Co., an Army-Navy store on a forlorn waterfront block of Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn near the East River, you wonder whether it's still in business. The outward evidence — a dust-coated storefront, outdated merchandise — suggests that it closed sometime during the Carter administration. Yet the lights are on.

List.

Army of Shadows
Favela Rising*
Napoleon Dynamite*
An Inconvenient Truth
X-Men: The Last Stand
The Da Vinci Code
Art School Confidential
Poseidon
The Promise
Mission: Impossible III
Friends With Money
L'Enfant
The Notorious Bettie Page
Kinky Boots
Thank You for Smoking

* on cable

Tequila.

With some of my favorite bloggers at GB:NYC3 at Barrage last friday and, incidentally, (or was it accidently?) celebrating my birthday. Thank you all.

Soccer IS/AS a metaphor.

"Every neutral fan following this month's World Cup will want Brazil to win, and every soccer-lover with a national stake in the competition will have Brazil as his second team. Soccer is the world's biggest religion, cutting across race, faith, geography, ideology and gender like no other global phenomenon. Brazil is the religion's favorite church.

Why the love? Some of it comes from the fact that Brazil is a country without enemies. That a defeat at home to Uruguay in the World Cup final in 1950 still ranks, in all seriousness, as one of the greatest tragedies in Brazilian history bespeaks a nation without much of a war-making tradition. Brazilians prefer a rip-roaring carnival. More important, perhaps, is the appearance of racial harmony that Brazil's national team projects. Some players are black, some are white, but usually they are a blend of the two, the shades and shapes representing the range of types that come from the Amazon basin, from West Africa and from the European countries that have contributed so much to the genetic cocktail: Portugal, Italy and Germany. The first superstar of Brazilian soccer was the green-eyed, curly-haired Arthur Friedenreich, who scored the winning goal in a celebrated 1-0 victory over Uruguay in 1919. Racial stereotypes -- blacks are more graceful, say, or whites more tenacious -- break down. Ask any Brazilian who, in terms of pure skill, was the greatest Brazilian player ever, and chances are he'll be torn between the competing claims of the brown-skinned Garrincha and the blond Zico."

Trends come but they definitely GO!

Any fashion trend lifecycle looks like a typical bell-curve graph, gradually growing initially (early adopters), then hitting a faster pace of growth (oh, you are so cool), and an equally quick decline after a peak (followers), and finally dying a slow death (so last year).

Most fashion trends will be replaced by new ones and soon forgotten (that's the business of fashion), UNLESS they leave behind visible traces that will remind people of not how trendy you are but what a fool you were.

I can understand people adopting trends that they can grow out of, like, say, a mohawk. Hell, I do. But what about a trend such as having your entire arm tattoed in technicolor? Don't tell me it's not a trend, that you are not into fashion, you are your own trendsetter... 2 years ago one barely saw a full arm tatto and now they are so ubiquitous that they are way downhill on that bell curve.

Long sleeves will be the new black. Soon.

Ursprache.

She knows, I don't.

But my favorite was weltschmerz "which means sadness over the evils of the world".

This blog as seen through Aharef: Websites as graphs.

Duh!

Things change in New York.

Things change all the time. You don't mind this when you live here; it's part of the caffeinated romance of the city that never sleeps. But when you leave you experience change as a betrayal. (...) You've turned your back for only a moment, and suddenly everything is different. You were an insider, a native, a subway traveller, a purveyor of tips into the good stuff, and now you are just another frequent flyer. (...) It seems the moment you left town they put up a wall around the place, and you will never manage to vault over it and get back into the city again.

Nora Ephron on this week's New Yorker

This is pretty much how I feel right now...