Minimal Curitiba
Concise, cosmopolitan & Curitiban with sound and vision.
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More liked posts“Finally experienced what has long been my favorite loan word into English. However, it was after dawn, not dusk, and the dictionary doesn’t tell you that after the serein moves past you and out to sea, it is followed by a few moments of oppressive tropical humidity that are followed by cool breezes and refreshed, sweet air. —Morning in Salvador da Bahia.”
Back in 1993, when Nirvana played in Brazil, Kurt Cobain wrote a letter to a keyboard player and bassist by the name of Arnaldo Baptista, asking him to please reunite his long-defunct band. The band in question: Os Mutantes. If you’re not big into Latin rock, you might not know the group — but artists you listen to and love were no doubt deeply influenced by it. Among them is Beck, who describes listening to Os Mutantes for the first time as “one of those revelatory moments you live for as a musician, when you find something that you have been wanting to hear for years but never thought existed.
The election has enormous implications for the western hemisphere, where the Obama State Department has continued, with barely a stutter, the Bush administration’s strategy of “rollback” against the unprecedented independence that the left governments of South America have won over the last decade. A defeat of the Workers’ party would have been a big victory for the DC foreign policy establishment.
It also has implications for the rest of the world. In May, Brazil and Turkey broke new ground in the world of international diplomacy, by negotiating a nuclear fuel swap arrangement for Iran, in an attempt to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme. The State Department was probably more upset about this than anything that Brazil had done in the region, including Lula’s strong and consistent support for the government of President Hugo Chavéz in Venezuela. Serra, for his part, had attacked the Iran deal during his campaign.
Outside of Washington, then, Dilma Rousseff’s win in this election, consolidating President Lula’s achievements, will be greeted as good news.
“President Lula, obviously, won’t be a presence within my cabinet.”
Dilma Rousseff, Halloween, 2010
“Crap. I just know I’m going to end up a teacher.”
One of my seniors after an hour-long discussion on the Middle Path, cosmopolitan ethics and using Chaos Theory as a metaphor for analyzing historical phenomena…
Battle for Brasil: Round Two
BRAZILIANS choose a new president on Sunday 31st October. In a battle of the technocrats, Dilma Rousseff, who until recently was the outgoing president’s chief-of-staff, is likely to beat José Serra, the former governor of Brazil’s largest state (though the polls have narrowed somewhat). The Economist thinks Mr Serra would make a better president.
“O que é um peido pra quem já está cagado.”
Wise words taught to me by a wise woman…
“Situation: Standing outside of a vegetarian restaurant, waiting for friends. Proprietor comes up to me and says something in Portuguese. I say, ‘Desculpe. Eu não falo português…’ He replies, in English, ‘My friend, what do you speak? Come, let’s talk.’”
- First reaction: That’s so cool. So nice. So Brasil.
- Second reaction: Holy crap! It’s the Greek!
I talk a lot of smack about New York, but there is one thing about the City that no other place in the world will ever be able to live up to…
We miss you so much Mr. Tolley!!! We took this picture especially for you!
This was our college trip to New England for GE Scholars. We were at Harvard.
Gaviões da Fiel: Miss Fiel and the Faithful Hawks
The largest soccer fan club in the world belongs to São Paulo’s Sport Club, Corinthians Paulista. Their supporters, Gaviões da Fiel, are renowned for being the biggest organized rooting association in the world. They have over 80,000 supporters, and among them you will find soccer muses, a samba school, and arguably the most impressive float at São Paulo’s Carnaval. In short, they inspire passion like no other club. We hang out with them on match day as they get geared up at their clubhouse, fill the buses to head to the stadium and ultimately go nuts in the stands.
See the rest at VBS.TV: Miss Fiel And The Faithful Hawks - We Are Eleven | VBS.TV
“I only regret that this is the first time I’m voting and my picture isn’t on the screen.”
“Is that a reading packet? I LOVE reading packets!”
One of my students today as I was handing out a 40-page packet on the development of European nationalism. She was serious and three of her friends were nodding vigorously in agreement…
