I'm Back from Brazil!!!

jazzy mary · April-2nd-2003, 12:40 PM

Hey guys, I have a headache from trying to figure out this new board, so I hope this works. I'm back form Brazil and I can't wait to tell you all about it. It's my first day back at work so....I'll see you guys later.

Pete, you are the best!! "Ouro Negro" is magnificent. I had to go to three places to find it and then I got the last one!!! I have something for you, so I'll be e-mailing you!

Monte Smith · April-2nd-2003, 12:46 PM

Cool JM. Tell us all about it.

We have a new hire here at my company. I walked by her cubicle and heard the lilting strains of a samba coming from her Apple. Sure enough, she's from Sao Paolo.

Uli · April-2nd-2003, 12:48 PM

JM, don't torture us. Spiil the beans!

jazzy mary · April-2nd-2003, 12:52 PM

I'm sorry, Uli. I will soon. Sao Paulo was great. I just wish I had had more time there!

Pete C · April-2nd-2003, 03:20 PM

Mary, when you get a chance visit the hot new Brazilian Music thread and tell us what you heard.

jazzy mary · April-3rd-2003, 06:01 PM

I'm sorry, guys I haven't forgotten. it's just that 've been so busy at work. I'll try to post first thing tomorrow. :-)

jazzy mary · April-4th-2003, 04:48 PM

All right, let me try to re-cap my Brazil, or should I write Brasil, adventure. We landed in Rio and a travel person here at my work had hooked up an incredible deal for us. A 5 star hotel right on Copacabana Beach with a total unobscured ocean view w/ a terrace for $100 a night. Every morning and night we'd look and take in the sweeping view from Sugar Loaf all the way down to Ipanema Beach.

The first afternoon, we walked around the Ave. Atlantica which has that wavy stone design (if you've ever been to the ocean towns in Portugal you've seen it) and we walked all over, oh yeah, before that we had caprianis or whatever those drinks are (I had probably a dozen of them during my stay in Brazil), and ate a restaurant by the ocean.

Brazil is amazingly cheap, the second night we had dinner at the Copacabana Palace hotel at Cipriani's (I can't afford that in NY) and for a complete dinner w/ a great bottle of wine and impeccable service it came to $80 for two! All over Brazil, you can eat at the most splendid 5 star restaurants and get a really GOOD bottle of wine for one-fourth the price you'd ever pay in NY. The Brazilians are really nice too. We toured all over Rio and went up the tram to Sugar Loaf, to the Christ the Redeemer place, toured all around, saw that incredibly modern and hideous church--but terribly interesting in that you can scarcely believe someone would design such a thing. We spent a day in the "Centro" area, and also had a chance to hang on the beach by the water and watched surfers. We did do a little shopping. Brazil is reknowned for its gemstones and for a jewelry freak like me it was heaven!! I bought some way too expensive earrings at Amsterdam Sauer (emeralds and diamonds) but here in the States they's be 4 times as much!! But since I shot my wad, so to speak, so early on in the trip jewelry wise I had to really keep a lid on any further spending. Both of my girls play soccer so I got them some official soccer shirts (way cheap) 'cause ,as I'm sure you all know, the Brasilians LOVE futball

Of course one quest I had was to find the cds Pete C had so lovingly outlined as essential. I went to three places trying to find "Ouro Negro" and finally found it at a beautiful Rio bookstore called Livraria da Travessa. Bruno, the cat who helped me, was so sweet and he'd let me listen to all these cds. They have this cool thing where all they do is scan the thing and presto you can hear it! I was really delighted with that. I guess Bruno was taken with my enthusiam 'cause he told me "you are so beautiful". Thanks, Bruno. You were a sweetie! Norah Jones is being promoted LIKE CRAZY in Brazil and in both Rio and Sao Paulo there are BIG posters of her and her cd playing in the record stores. I also bought a bunch of other cds at a Rio version of K-mart and they were quite cheap (around $7 a cd) but I was buying somewhat indiscriminately and now there are several I'm not really very crazy about. But I had such a hard time finding the ones Pete mentioned, I just felt I'd better grab what I can. I never did find the Ed Motta one anywhere. I was finally able to find "Elis Regina in Montreaux" at a bookstore at the mall in Higienopolis (healthy city) in San Paulo. I always asked for "Elis and Tom" and was told that it always gets sold out the moment it arrives. At any rate, Pete, thanks for hipping me ot "Ouro Negro" it is truly wonderful!!! FWIW, it costs around $24 in Rio.

Ok, we rented a car to make, what I thought was an easy little drive up to Tiradentes, Ouro Preto and Marianna in the Minais Gervais area. Well, what I thought would be 5 hour trip turned out to be 9 hours of the most scary, terrible roads we have ever encountered in our LIFE!!!!!!! And we have driven in some wild places!! DO NOT EVER DRIVE IN BRAZIL!!! They have potholes that are as big as moon craters and absolutely NO indication that they are there. We carefully avoided hitting them but did hit one on our way back to Rio and had a blow-out. It was a little frightening changing a tire on the side of the road with almost no shoulder, in *utter* darkness and the only light being my little key-ring flashlight I had gotten at the San Diego zoo!! Thank goodness for that flashlight! And then, of course, trying to get out of Rio, we could not find the right road and we made what we've come to call the "favela tour". I'm sure you've all heard and seen pictures and stories about the Rio shantytowns. Well, it's true. Ringing around Rio are these shacks all built up on top of one another in the hills and people, dogs and horses all just walking or running around. We saw this guy, wearing only pants, with his son beside him (wearing only pants) standing straight up on this cart that was just 4 boards hammered together holding the reigns of this horse that was galloping --transporting them to wherever. It really was a sight. I have to say though, that we never felt unsafe or threatened in Brazil (except for those damn potholes!). All the way up to Ouro Preto, along the *mountain* roads, you see people walking, walking, walking. I don't know how they do it. Then, in the middle of nowhere there'd be this little wood shelter where someone was selling coconuts or this fried dough like stuff.

Ok, Tiradentes, Ouro Preto and Marianna are these old gold mining towns that are now historical towns. They are filled with magnificent churches. In Tiradentes I saw one of the most splendid churches I have ever seen and I have seen some churches, you name it, Notre Dame, St. Peter's , San Chappelle, Chartres etc. but this one "blew my mind" it was COVERED in gold leaf all over inside. Did anyone see the Brazil exhibit at the Guggenheim a couple of years ago? It was a great exhibit and really got me thinking serioulsy of going to Brazil. If you did, you kinda know what I'm talking about. I have NEVER seen anything like it. The religious art in Brazil is really interesting. The Christ on the Cross is always very "over the top" and more gruesome than say, Italian or French renditions. Lots of blood,scraped skin, really intense! And the statues are usually wood with human hair on them, real cloth robes and then a hollowed out back so they can be used in the Easter processionals. Yikes, a little creepy and scary! Tiradentes was the quaintest of these towns, filled with not cobble-stone, but more like big shards of stone (*very* uneven--really hard to walk) fitted together. When I die I want to be reincarnated as a dog living in Tiradentes. There were these cute mutt types dogs running around and man, did they have the life! They didn't have to work like the horses did during the day, but would just come and go in the village where ever they wanted. Meet their friends, hang with them, maybe see their owner, run over and get a big hug from him and then wag their tail and trot off with their friends. They'd sit in the middle of the street and cars would go around them or give a gentle toot of the horn an the doggie would be like, ok, I guess I'll move! What a life! They were good little dogs too, I never heard them bark or fight. Horses would get to be free at night and you'd be walking down the street and you'd see horses hanging around, walking the street, relaxing and you would recognize ones that you had seen pullling a wagon earlier. We saw horse pulled wagons all over these towns being used for work, pulling things, carrying things etc. Trucks are not that plentiful and prob. couldn't get throught the streets anyway.

Man, it's gettting late. Is this getting too long!!?? I still have to write about Igazu falls and Sao Paulo!! Can I do that later? Do you all want to hear it?

Uli · April-4th-2003, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jazzy mary

Man, it's gettting late. Is this getting too long!!?? I still have to write about Igazu falls and Sao Paulo!! Can I do that later? Do you all want to hear it?

Can't talk for the rest of them all, but I sure do, JM.

jazzfiend · April-4th-2003, 07:10 PM

Count me in too, Jazzy. Welcome back!

Valerie · April-4th-2003, 09:03 PM

I'm loving every minute and every word - even though I heard a lot about the trip during our telephone call!! You're a good storyteller, girl!!

SinginSumo · April-5th-2003, 04:40 PM

Just a reminder...

it's been roughly 24 hours since your last post. I anxiously await the next part of the story of your Brazilian adventure, jm.

Pete C · April-5th-2003, 04:55 PM

Mary, I'm surprised you had to pay so much for Ouro Negro. It's listed on somlivre.com for R$36.10, which should be under US $12. I'm also surprised you couldn't find Dwitza.

gonzo · April-5th-2003, 11:37 PM

what about the incredible poverty and culture of street children
right around the corner from the resort areas of all the major cities.

jazzy mary · April-7th-2003, 01:09 PM

Hey guys, I have lots more to tell you about but I've been busy and I had to run out and get tickets to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Madison Sq. on June 26!! Yeah!!

It's snowing like *crazy* here and I WAS totally unprepared, no boots, no umbrella. I'm soaked!

Let me dry off and go do some things and I'll come back.

Pete, I saw "City of God" this weekend. Suffice it to say that we didn't see any gang warfare and shootouts while we were in Rio. Of course the film takes place in the 60s-80s. Actually those housing project like homes they showed in the film looked *better* than the shanty town homes we saw.

Gonzo, we really didn't see too many homeless, poor kids in Rio. We did quite a few homeless grown men who were on benches along the Ave. Atlantica--either sleeping, hanging etc. But, I'm from NY and the sight of homeless people doesn't shock me. I didn't find them threatening or anything. We walked late at night (well, midnight-1a.m. ---not that late for Rio) along the Ave. Atlantica and did not feel unsafe. There are alot of people around and there are police too. I got the feeling that everyone knew these guys and they were "regulars". I sure didn't see anyone bother them. I saw more poverty in Sao Paulo but more about that later.

I know there is incredible poverty and illiteracy in Brazil and I'm sure near the resort hotels there are poor people. It would be somewhat unlikely that someone in Rio on vacation would see all that. Like if someone visits NYC, they probably wouldn't go to East NY to get the real flavor of those "hoods". No doubt when someone is on vacation in a big city, they are usually not going to see the "other side of the city" so to speak.

tippy · April-7th-2003, 01:21 PM

Mary, I too wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your first installment--I printed it out immediately and held onto it for good read on the subway ride and home and it was really really terrific and I was sorry I hadn't told you how eager I was to read it before I left for the weekend.

Oh yeah, and Welcome Back!

Pete C · April-7th-2003, 01:33 PM

Mary, you need an avatar.

jazzy mary · April-7th-2003, 02:46 PM

Thanks, Tip! Pete, I don't think that's quite the right avatar for me. I'm Catholic, don't forget and we Irish Catholics take the Virgin very seriously! BTW, does that watch keep time well?

Jimmy Cantiello · April-7th-2003, 03:06 PM

Only during Lent and Easter...............

jazzy mary · April-8th-2003, 04:04 PM

I'm not posting again until I get at least 300 "views"!! I'm only kidding. I really thought I'd have time today to do this but I've been busy saving a man's life! No kiddding, one of my pro bono cases is a Texas death penalty case and I've been working on it all day!!

Kevin Bresnahan · April-8th-2003, 04:25 PM

Welcome back Mary.

Hey, Mary, can you do me a favor?? Call Danny and ask him what the hell his goal is with that terrible post (now since deleted) over at All About Jazz's bulletin board where he made fun of recently deceased pianist Jutta Hipp. If his goal was to alienate every single person who's ever logged onto the Internet, tell him he's pretty close by now. What the hell was he thinking making fun of a woman who died so broke she donated her body for scientific research to avoid burial expenses? He's just nuts if he thinks people are going to join in on that. Nuts.

Later,
Kevin

jazzy mary · April-8th-2003, 04:52 PM

I didn't see the post. But I don't call Danny--that's long distance! HE calls me. Why don't you just e-mail and ask him? From what I know of Dan, his whole thing is to provoke no matter how tasteless or disgusting he can be. I don't understand it.

jazzy mary · April-9th-2003, 01:42 PM

Ok, here's some more stuff about Rio which I didn't have a chance to talk about earlier. And I'm listening to disc one of "Ouro Negro" right now. Btw, Pete, I think you may be right. I think $24 is not the right calculation for the CD. I'm not exactly sure how much it costs because Bruno had me listen to this one cd that was "Brazilian jazz" that he thought I would like but I didn't dig it that much so he put it back behind the counter. When I went to pay for "ON". I was in a big hurry and I paid and started to run out the store but I looked at the receipt before I did and I thought "wow that's high" . I can't recall exactly how many reals it was but I think it was something like 77 or 79 reals then I realized that they had put in the cd I didn't want, so I ran back, returned it and the guy gave me the $ back but I really don't know how much "ON" was. At any rate, maybe someone can figure it out. I'm not sure *where* I got $24 from but that's too high--maybe it was more $15?? Anyway, it's so good and what a beautiful package with the booklet and all people should buy it even at the import price. But I recommend specifically going to Brazil just to buy cds, if for no other reason!! :-) I had taken Pete's recs. with me and had highlighted the titles so if (and this happened) someone couldn't understand me I could just show them the names and titles. Hey, I'm nothing, if not organized! I did find some Ed Motta but not "Dwitza".

Ok, music. So many people asked me if I heard or saw Samba. Well, the center of the universe for jazz and music in general is NYC and I had a hard time finding live music in Brazil. There was this, seemed to me jive, Samba extravaganza you could go to but it had all the appearences of a Las Vegas floor show, which I dig in LV, but it wasn't for me in Rio. A couple of folks recommended this place called Vinicius in Impanema as the only place to go. It's named for Vinicius de Moreas and the night we went there there was a woman singing who kept referring to her dad as the the namesake of the place --so I'm guessing it was his daughter?? (I'm pretty quick). She was accompanied by a man on guitar. She was good. There is something about the Portuguese language that is so beautiful when it is sung. She also sang, in English, a lovely version of the Beatles' song that has the lyrics ".....hole in my head, to keep my mind from wandering". What song is that??? It's been driving me crazy! Even my 9 year old, who is a Beatles expert, and can play "While my Guitar gently Weeps" on her guitar didn't know. Or, at least, she didn't get it from my singing it to her.......

Anyway, this woman's guitar player was good and then another guitar player played who was also quite good and then a Japanese woman sang Brazilian bossa nova and samba songs. It was neat. BTW, Antonio Jobim is REVERED in Brazil. They renamed the Rio International airport the "Tom Jobim" airport. I don't understand the "Tom" wouldn't Antonio be "Tony"? Can someone explain? Whenever you look for his cds, it's always "Tom" like "Tom Jobim e Convidados" which I bought.

Also, I haven't emphasized enough how dreadful those Brazilian potholes were. Not only were they HUGE but they were VERY DEEP!!!!!!! If a bicycle or a motorcycle hit them the front half of those vechicles would be swallowed up. I'm still haunted by those potholes! The Minais Gervais mountains are where they mine all those wonderful, wonderful gemstones like Imperial topaz, amethyst, tourmaline, citrine, emerald and so on. *Sigh*. And, of course, at one time gold. But the gold rush is over and now aluminum is mined there too. We saw so many trucks (smaller than their U.S. counerparts--but big enough to be all on top of you and passing you while you're trying to avoid potholes) and the trucks, and our car, were *covered* in the red clay of the mountains. On the way back to Rio, we stopped to get gas (complete service, of course) and asked them to wash the windows and they took buckets and washed off our entire car!

Oh yeah, the beaches in Rio. They are very clean and total white sand with no shells and nary a rock. I thought women would be walking around half naked with those thong things with their bottoms all exposed and stuff but I guess modesty has hit Rio a bit. The women wear bikinis but I scarcely saw any thongs. And I mean ALL the women--even really old women wear bikinis. The men wear small bathing suits too and man, they do not care about their bellies all hanging out like crazy. Rio is incredibly casual. Most peple go around in shorts, flip-flops or barefoot and just a t-shirt or pullover top. At night some woman dress up a little. But they always wear real skin tight short shirts with maximum cleavage. Like a Victoria Secret catalogue. I swear bra manufacturers would starve in Rio. I had a couple of outfits with some cleavage going on, but JM could have done a *lot* more. Next time, I'll bring my most cleavage oriented stuff, but I was too modest this time. The women all wear flip-flops and open toed sandals but no one paints their toe nails! Before I went I gave myself a pedicure and did my toenails and all that 'cause I thought the Rio women would be all that, you know. But, I was the only one. Oh well. We saw a few "tall and tan and young and lovely" types but on the whole the Brazilian women all kindof look alike. Dark skin, long curly hair (always long hair) somewhat small framed but making the most of that cleavage. We really needed one more day in Rio just to hang out on the beach and chill.

I'm coming to the end of my trip--Igazu, utterly amazing, Falls and Sao Paulo. I have to run now and I can't stay late 'cause I HAVE to see the film about Fellini at the Film Forum tonight!!!! And last night I had ultra primo seats to the Knicks game. I've gotten a bunch of tickets to the Nets and the Knicks this season through a really sweet court reporting agency I used and it's been so much fun! All I can say is Allan Houston rules!!!!!!!!! I know it sounds like I do a lot but that's just lately. Usually all I do is work, shop for groceries, cook (sortof), do laundry ( I'm awesome at laundry), spend hours on the subway (I HATE the F line) and hang with my girls. So, I'll pick this up later. Thank you all for your patience!

Pete C · April-9th-2003, 01:48 PM

Mary, Dwitza is very different from most of Motta's output. It's a mostly instrumental concept album, whereas most of his career has been as a soul singer in the mold of Tim Maia, who I think was Motta's uncle.

Mary, I don't suppose the Japanese woman was Lisa Ono, was it? She's a bossa singer who was born in Brazil, but moved to Japan where she's quite big.

jazzy mary · April-9th-2003, 01:49 PM

Thank you so much!!, David! Whew!!

jazzy mary · April-9th-2003, 01:58 PM

I don't know, Pete. I don't think so..........

Jimmy Cantiello · April-9th-2003, 02:44 PM

So, Mary, how soon can you send me two of those Knicks tickets?............

jazzy mary · April-9th-2003, 04:01 PM

Alas, not anytime soon, Jimmy. I hope I get some more soon. I'll tell you something funny, every time I've gotten them, I've asked a friend of mine who is a musician if he would like to go with me (cause he's always such a sweetie in re: hooking me up when he plays) but *everytime* he has a gig. I thought for sure he could go last night, but he was at the BN!! Maybe next time.

gonzo · April-10th-2003, 04:43 AM

what ever happened to badi assad?

Pete C · April-10th-2003, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gonzo
what ever happened to badi assad?

Gonzo, there's a Brazilian music thread.

jazzy mary · April-11th-2003, 10:10 AM

Yes, yes, Dave. Igaussu and Sao Paulo. I had a HORRIBLE day at work yesterday so I have had no chance to post. I hope I will be able to today and I can wrap this story up!