Look at the chemistry between them!
Roberta Sá & Chico – Mambembe
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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Leaving the TV on – Observations
Since 2005 when my first long stay in Brazil started, I’ve noticed more than a few common threads that unite the people of Brazil. One of those is leaving the TV on when no one is watching it.
I never understood this peculiarity though. Is the extra noise like a nightlight to a child, like a mothers home cooked meal or a favorite corner of the house to read a book? What I mean by that is, is it a comfort thing?
Is the TV here just as nice to watch as it is to hear? Was the radio left on all the time before the TV was introduced to Brazil?
The other interesting thing is that some families unplug the electronics when they are not using them as a way to save energy or a superstition that says energy is being used even if the device is turned off (well, modern electronics do have a power save mode so when you turn it off, it just goes into hibernate). So this brings me to deduce that leaving the TV on while at home is considered a fair use of said device.
Any thoughts?
The Cheated On Chair
Over at The Good Blood, theres a post on designer Sergio Rodrigues with a little background taken from CoolHunting. In the video, the Brazilian designer and architect talks of his designs, one of which is the Chifruda. See the video below!
Help Discoteca finally closes
“Help, the notorious night club in Copacabana, in the South side of Rio, that became legendary for catering to foreign tastes offering music, easy booze and plenty of women ready for sex for a price, tried a last delaying tactic to keep its doors open at least till Carnaval, in mid February, but this time it didn’t work.
Rio’s governor Sergio Cabral gave an ultimatum determining that the place should be empty by Saturday. The location will be used to build the new Museum of Image and Sound (MIS). Construction should last three years starting in 2010. Wednesday night ended up being the last time the place was open for business after an afternoon auction to sell Help’s belongings.
The process to close the night club started in January 2008. In November, an agreement between the Windsor Group, owner of the club and the state of Rio extended till the end of 2009 the deadline to close the place.” – Brazzil (more here)
Carlyle Group buys 63% of CVC
“Carlyle Group, the world’s second- largest private-equity firm, may announce today the purchase of a majority stake in Brazilian tour operator CVC Brasil Operadora e Agencia de Viagens SA, a person familiar with the transaction said.
Carlyle is likely to buy bought a 60 percent stake in the company, according to the person, who asked to remain anonymous because he isn’t authorized to speak on the matter.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of Washington-based Carlyle, said last month the company planned two or three acquisitions in the “mid-$100 million” range in Brazil, part of a strategy to benefit from the size and growth potential of Latin America’s biggest economy. Private-equity companies such as Carlyle are seeking new investments after the global recession reduced bank lending and triggered a two-year drought.
Carlyle paid about 700 million reais ($404 million) for the stake, O Estado de S. Paulo reported today, citing unidentified people close to the talks
CVC, based in the suburbs of Sao Paulo, was founded by Guilherme Paulus and Carlos Vicente Cerchiari in 1972, according to its Web site. The company sells everything from international package tours to trips to resorts within Brazil. The purchase doesn’t include CVC’s Webjet airline business, according to the person.
A CVC official declined to comment. Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman didn’t immediately respond to a phone call for comment.” – Business Week
Hoje eu to enjoado
I´m going a little crazy living in Para because I have to listen to this brega song many times everyday…for a month so far. Almost as bad, the youngsters actually find it to be a great song…people even discuss the lyrics. I dont even have the heart to place this under the Music category. Oh and there happens to be a competing song out now, competing for annoyingness. Its called Selinho na Boca but Ill save you from having to hear it.
At least Beyonce is respectable in the overlapped video…oh wait, nevermind.
LAN Houses (Cyber Cafes)
Here in Brazil, when you need to use the internet and dont have a computer, you can walk into any of the LAN Houses (cyber cafes) in just about every half-modern city.
When you enter, you tell the person at the front that you want to use a computer (unless you are 16 years old and are there to play Playstation with your friends and yell the whole time about who is beating who). The attendant will ask you how long you wish to use it and sometimes he or she will ask a question which might make you tilt your head a bit. They might ask, “você quer com web?” (do you want it with web?) and by ‘web’ they don’t mean the internet, but rather a webcam.
Now, either the place will have the time set in the bottom corner of the screen (such as in FedEx in the USA) and the clock counting down to zero or they will have a notebook where they make note of when you came in and how long you still have.
There was talk in Brazil recently of officially registering all users by writing down their name and ID number (which would later be given to the gov’t) to monitor web traffic ‘for our protection’ (ha-ha) but as of this point, it hasn’t come into effect as far as I can tell (and I use LAN Houses frequently).
If you use MSN, you’ll probably see a picture of a young man with his shirt off posing for the camera as the profile picture of the last person to use it but don’t mind that, just enter your details and sign on.
As for the web…I mean the net, Chrome and Firefox are widely used as browsers and the computers are always using Windows. In terms of prices per hour, it depends on where you are but where I am (in a smaller city), I pay 25 cents per hour but there are places in the same city that charge 50 cents per hour. In the city of Rio, I remember paying something like US$1-1.50 per hour back in 2005 so who knows if it has increased or not.
