Bits & Pieces of Buenos Aires (Good Airs) pt.1

          "A small, vomitous stomach gurgle expanded into an intolerable, full-bodied anguish.  There was no choice for Philbo but to dedicate a bullet either to his own brain, or to the brain of this fellow yammering and pointing at blurry pictures of a drunken Caribbean vacation."

         That is a passage from a splendid novel, one that doesn't exist, about many people's struggle to successfully make their vacation/travel seem even moderately interesting to other humans.  It's peculiar that this issue arises seeing as 37.3% of travel (56.8% in Winter) is to instill jealousy in others.  Our species travels a lot these days, with insane technology for capturing experiences, and thus we have all become much more difficult to impress.  That's not new information, but it demands a reform in presentation methods.  I don't wish to sound like a douche sack who's words extend past his ability, but some pointers below could help prevent your loved ones from daydreaming about dipping their face in lava when you start explaining your travels to them.

i.  While away, try to keep in mind that most major tourist spots have been photographed by much more talented people with much better equipment.  If you think a Google search can find it, set your sights on a different target. 


ii.  Take extra time to make sure the photo is straight and experiment with the composition as sometimes an inch or two of fiddling can slide your image from shittastic to marvelous.


iii.  Keep your camera sheathed when you first arrive in a novel environment.  Breathe, absorb, speculate, imagine, converse, have a beer and such before taking 7000 shots.  Pay attention, as the photo should never be better than the actual experience.


iv.  Put people who live in that country in your images.   Snapshot after snapshot of yourself in front of random stuff offers the same quantity of enjoyment as stuffing wasps into your genitals.  


v.  Once you're home, edit your photos and get your story straight.  If you took 60 photos of a misty mountain sunrise, show us 2. When you tell your tales, pepper them with your favourite adjectives, try to skillfully apply an adverb and avoid the improper use of the word "like".


All of that goes out the window for me when it comes to animals.  You could show me poorly taken photos of llamas & baby jaguars all day and enthrallment wouldn't dissipate.  

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So, these photos and the video were all taken in Buenos Aires in mid February.  It's a city that we fell in love with immediately and recommend visiting.  I called this post Pt.1 because a number of cool things couldn't fit into a solitary bloggle.  The video is supposed to be the real meat of this post, so hopefully all them words up their haven't prevented you from giving it a gander.
 IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 
IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 

IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 
IMPORTANT PART!  PLEASE GANDER! 

Samba do Champlain

Whoopsidaisy!  It's amazing what returning to the employment world can do to one's blog dedication.  But, with the weather as shittay as it is, the need to reminisce and bathe in the recorded media of warmer times is absolutely mandatory.

The ambitious sound and video editing is slowly chugging along, but today's treat is a track called 'A Hora e a Vez do Samba by the maestro, Martinho da Vila from his 1973 album Origens.  This was picked up in Praca Tiradentes from my favourite vinyl street vendor.

The video is actually a time lapsed video of a sunset on Lake Champlain in Quebec from the summer of 2009.  The video was originally 20 minutes but it's now sped up into a 3 minute thang.  Thanks to our lovely hosts who gave us ample food, beverage, fishing and waterskiing/wakeboarding!

A Pickup Truck & Escravos da Mauá (pre-Carnaval bloco 2011)

The first bloco (street party) of our Carnaval 2011 experience (in images & video)

VIDEO: CLICK CLICK CLICK...WATCH WATCH WATCH

Folks of any age, race or hairiness can wear ballet outfits

Upon knowing the existence of penis glasses, we immediately went to buy some.  There is a button inside so they light up....

These are the real heroes...the men & women who ensure the party is emboozed.

There are still many little beautiful nooks and crannies where you can escape the madness (avoid the nooks and crannies where you get robbed....we did not get robbed)

Big trucks carting the talented musicians who keep the rumps bouncing and the crowds singing 

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This should probably be in a different post......but don't want to spam Facebook and e-mail with more things than necessary.  Made it in the airport at Buenos Aires & in the air over Argentina, Uruguay and the parts of Brasil back to Rio....featuring Little Dragon, Quadron, The Heavy, Vampire Weekend and Brazilian appearances of Seu Jorge, Milton Nascimento & Da Lata!

Bit Of A Tangent by Mogpaws on Mixcloud

The High Paradise of Alta Paraiso de Goias

Salutations most beloved humans,

Time is short, our rumps are required on the back of a motorcycle to transport us through these arid, tropical highlands of central Brasil to some kind of lovely waterfall.  We are now at a wee cafe that serves Internet in Alta Paraiso de Goias, 250km outside of Brasilia (a lot weirder and cooler than we thought it would be), a haven for ecotourism and the center of atypical spiritual groups in Brasil.

The last while has consisted of numerous lengthy lengthy bus rides to get us from Rio to Sao Paulo to Ouro Preto to Brasilia and to our current location.  We are having a small crisis in that the hard drive containing all of our photos from the trip has decided to transform from alive to dead....hopefully we can find a techno-schaman upon our return to bring it back (or atleast the files)... so you´ll have to settle for videos of where we are scrounged up from ze Youtube.



The second video has that popular Moby track from a number of years ago....if it doesn´t tickle you correctly or it rubs your fur in the opposite direction of how you like it, just turn down the sound and activate a tune of your choosing from iTunes...that´s what I did.

Hot Primate Injection

It is 6:43am and the bus station beckons.  We are groggy... forgive any errors of wit or syntax.

 For four months  Rio has been blessed with our hooves trotting about it's steep slopes and golden valleys, the Cariocas have come to trust us and every morning you can find them waiting out in the garden for us to pet them.  I think that means 1) Nobody has robbed us yet and 2) Our Portuguese no longer causes the spurting of blood & cerebral matter from the ears' of locals.  But yeah, we're going to the bus station now and we shan't be back for a number of weeks.  That's why you get two posts.

We will certainly plonk up some rambling and images on this marvelous bloog, but without the computers it will be tough to make the highly edited, professional video and audio to which you have grown accustomed.  But click below to get a hot primate injection.

The entrance to Tijuca National Park is a few hops away from our doorstep and it is there we go whenever we have a hankering to view primates, weird birds, big fruit, hefty lizards and an unending assortment of tropical foliage.

Knowing that there shan't be too many more opportunities to hang out in there, I wandered up with my chum, Nestor, last week and we were successfully able to interact with two species of monkey...including a type I hadn't seen yet.

This video begins at our home, moves to the middle of the forest and ends up at the Mirante Dona Marta.....a place that I believe is better than the Corcovado because
1) It's not so busy  
2) It costs nothing   
3) The view is wizzonkulous

Song:  Prelude - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (Choice Cuts)
             buy it....the whole disc is amazing!




Take care, we're off to Sao Paulo, Ouro Preto, Brasilia, Salvador, Recife and more!

Witness the Christmas

            The temperature was 38 degrees Celsius in the Centro area of Rio de Janeiro just a few days ago. Summer has merely begun to warm up the massive oven called Brazil. What better time to go hunting for prezzies and the spirit of a holiday that thrives in the harsh winter conditions of more northern climes? This activity will be pursued after frolicking in the waves and drinking a good number of half-frozen cervejas on the beach over the next six hours.

            If you are here and writhing in desperation to see something related to Natal (Christmas in Portuguese), then simply wander over to any ol’ shopping center or department store.  In some of these places you can pretty much forget that you’re not at Yorkdale Mall or the Eaton Center.  However, do not buy electronics or clothing because your wallet will get a thorough milking.  Turn on the television. It won’t be long before you find a seasonal flick, a heart-warming show that involves Jesus, or someone in an elf costume encouraging everyone to make a purchase.  You may also head over to the Lagoa, Rio’s large lake, to marvel (half in awe, half in disgust) at the 85 meter, floating metallic Christmas tree.  It’s not really a tree, of course, but it does emit a lot of light and colour.

            Centro is a portion of the city that can instill a more genuine sensation of Christmas upon one’s soul.  When exiting Carioca metro station, there is sometimes a gentleman who wields a saxophone and honks out familiar carols with an admirable amount of proficiency.  His between-carol laughter and indecipherable commentary make the package complete.  A few blocks away, a mechanical Santa is perched high on a ledge above the hoards of humans bustling and sweating down below.  He rotates and waves happily enough, but if the real Santa decided to come here wearing that outfit, he would be lucky to continue living for more than thirty minutes.  Not too many steps away from the robotic Santa, an inflatable Rudolph stands on a mound of cotton inside a giant plastic sphere and looks to the next shop, which has undressed, fake pine trees out front.  In this place you can track down all the decorations, cards, presents and personalized wrapping you could possibly require.  It is a busy and lively spot that is made better by being able to haggle with the vendors to save a few reais.

           

             Around our home, in the upper parts of the Santa Teresa neighbourhood, it is also possible to identify significant evidence of Christmas.  Outside a small bar, a woman is demonstrating how an advent calendar functions to her chums and a car tootles by not long after that which contains an elderly gentleman pumping out an instrumental jazz version of Jingle Bells.  We also witness a plump lady with tight-fighting garments strolling around with the family dachshund.  This pooch is not bothered by either it’s red and green boots or it’s Santa hat. Looking to the distance behind the festive dog, you can view the favela (slum) of Prazeres and see that even in the poor, run down communities, Christmas lights attached to homes are a fairly common sight. 

              In short, as soon as you try to seek out Yule, you’ll walk right into it.  This country is heavily Catholic, and the people here have had a long time to figure out how to do Christmas when most of the population has never encountered snow.   In addition, It must be tremendously difficult to feel sorry for someone in Brazil during Canadian winter.  The woe of not having quality time with family or receiving presents can be dismantled by hiking through a rainforest to gorgeous waterfalls or gawking at the skimpy swimwear many humans wear to the beaches of paradise. 

Terrace Primates

The last two days were spent ill at home. While in bed, scarfing down Pepto Bismol & groaning to nobody, several of these little monkeys (micos) appeared outside the window. Jasmine was at class, the house was empty and I knew the ripe bananas in the kitchen could be my only hope for some kind of encounter with another life form that day. Fortunately the stereotype of monkeys liking bananas held true.  


The attitude towards these monkeys for many people here is similar to the view we have on squirrels in Toronto. 

Toronto: "Why the hell would you want to capture the moment of a dirty rodent gnawing on an old muffin wrapper?" 

= 

Rio: "Why the hell would you waste perfectly good fruit & risk getting ebola from one of these annoying scavengers?"

This smaller species actually comes into the urban areas while the larger species just hang out in the national park (which we can still see whenever we want because our new place is right next to the entrance of the park)

I'm sorry, but being from a monkiless country makes any form of primate pretty awesome.  Their little faces and nimble fingers, their public fornication and thieving nature are truly awe-inspiring things that act as a reminder that we are in a tropical environment (the 30+ temperatures, rainforest, beaches, exotic fruit, subpar transport, slowness, frequency of beer intake, shirtlessness, giant insects, pictures of cold people back home etc.... are also reminders)

So, here's just a small video of our two new friends, Wagner & Wilson, who consented to being put on the internet the moment they accepted my offering of ripe, peeled fruit.  It sure did take them a long time to eat a single banana and they refused to hold it themselves, the lazy bastards.  

For: www.sambalikeithot.blogspot.com

Duration: 53 seconds
Music: Azaxx - Lounging Place (feat Larry Stabbins) from the great new Shapes 10:02 compilation on Tru Thoughts

http://www.junodownload.com/products/shapes-10-02/1663393-02/

Religious practice from the Amazon - Psychedelic Santo Daime

For this episode of Samba like it Hot, we wanted to recount a topic the we had never heard about before until recently. In a discussion of plans for Christmas, a friend told us some friends of hers were coming to visit from California, but that one of them wouldn't be around as she was going to be participating in a week-long religious ceremony that involves preparing a hallucinogenic tea made of the combination of amazonian vines and leaves. What craziness is this? We asked her. She was surprised we hadn't heard about it before. I was immediately intrigued. For some reason, stories of strange religions and cults have always sparked my interest - but strictly for curiousity only - the idea of becoming involved with any such group gives me the heebie-jeebies! 

She proceeded with an explanation of The Santo Daime religion. It originated in the Amazon by a Brazilian guy called Mestre Freire who was given the tea Ayahuasca by indigenous  people there. This tea with it's psychedelic properties has been used by Amazonian peoples for ritualistic purposes throughout Peru, Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador. The tea is extremely powerful, leading to visions, and psychological passages and purges. One interesting fact is the tea's properties are only reached by the combination of a particular vine and the leaves from another shrub - each alone do not produce the same effects as when they are combined. 

Later, Freire founded a religious community and the religion has spread worldwide - there are factions throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and even Asia! Santo Daime is a mix of Folk Catholicism, African Animism, and South American Shamanism.  The ceremonies of Santo Daime involve the making of the tea which they call 'Daime', and the imbibing of it,  the singing of hymns and dancing in geometrical patterns, accompanied by marracas and some other instruments  and bouts of silence for inner meditation. 'Dai-me' means give me, in following the main dictums of the religion which says 'Give me strength, give me Love'.   Ceremonies last for as much as 15 hours, often from dusk until dawn! 

Anyways, I have attached here a couple interesting videos found on you tube; give them a looksie if you too are now asking yourself, 'what is this crazy amazonian practice'?  The dress itself  - with all dressed in white, with crowns and sashes and stars is alone, fascinating! Also note the symbol of a cross with 2 horizontal bars instead of 1. Enjoy!

                 

                 

Rio in the eyes of the Terminator

For those of you who missed it when we posted this on facebook, here it is again in all it's glory: Arnold's trip to Rio circa 1970-something - classic, corny and creepy! Enjoy!

The PercPan Festival! Oi! Casa Grande, Rio de Janeiro

     The only guy we knew in Brasil before we arrived, just from Facebook, is a DJ, music collector & bang up fellow who told us about the PercPan festival (http://percpan.com/) one evening when we were watching an afrobeat concert at Circo Voador (in Lapa). When he mentioned all the groups that were going to be there, the mind couldn't handle it, grew unstable and exploded. Several hours later, consciousness came back and we were naked in the jungle. It then sunk in that we'd be able to see Orchestra Poly-Rythmo, Novalima, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Kocani Ochestar, Buraka Som Sistema and a bunch of other groups we'd never heard of all at the same festival.

     Perhaps this means nothing to you, that's okay. But as an audio nerd who ear-snorts tunes like the most seasoned addict dishes cocaine to their nostrils, this was a line up that produced insane levels of excitement and anticipation. There's no time to give you the backstory on all of the groups, but we grabbed a little footage of Orchestra Poly Rythmo de Cotonou (Benin) & Kočani Orkestar (Macedonia) with our wee camera. That footage was uploaded to Youtube and can now be viewed below.

     We were most excited about Orchestra Poly-Rythmo, a group that was massive in Benin in the 70s but got rediscovered by European Djs & collectors in the last few years and now enjoys new found popularity among african, funk & jazz enthusiasts all over the globe. It would be an honour to discuss all of the groups in great detail, but to keep it short, we'll just mention Letieres Leite & Orkestra Rumpilezz. This is an orchestral samba group from Brasil that was unfamiliar to us prior to the festival, but ended up being one of the best shows. It had about 20 members led by saxophonist Letieres Leite and the arrangements they played so tightly totally educated me on what this country can sound like. The only sad part is that we haven't found a record, CD or digital file of their music. Hopefully this is rectified soon.

Rio landmark's one claim to fame is being featured in a Snoop Dogg Video!

Who remembers this little diddy?! Beautiful- Snoop Dogg & Pharrell - twas a catchy tune! I especially like the intro. when Snoop is talking on the phone. Did ya know we are staying about 2 minutes away from these renowned tiled steps they sit on in the video? These are called 'Escaleras de Selaron', and they are just that - The set of steps by an eccentric Chilean artist by the name of Selaron, who has been painting and tiling the stairs as his life's art project for the past 20 years. See his mug below. Who wouldn't give for a moustache like that!

Our first video link must be this one:

Old Disney Cartoon : Donald Duck in Rio. Amazing.