Monthly Archives: May 2010

Orion’s Interactive Graffiti

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I have to admit that most of the time, street art just doesn’t do much for me. What does do something for me is when I see art interacting with the real world in some new and interesting way (such as the work of 6emeia). One could say that the work of Alexandre Orion is exactly that. His two projects called Metabiotica and Arte Menos Poluição are thought-provoking and interactive. Both can be seen in second half of the short documentary Underground Art on Youtube and the latter project can be seen in the video below.

What happens in the video below is Orion creating art from pollution by actually cleaning it off the tunnel walls. Is he then making art or doing something illegal? Is cleaning a public wall illegal? What of the city government’s reaction to his work (they clean the entire wall)?  

Using the Participle – Grammar

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 The following was taken from the book “Português Do Dia-a-Dia” by Prof. Sérgio Nogueira Duarte da Silva. If you get a chance to purchase the book, I do recommend it. As for the participle and the lesson below, one will often see the past participle of pagar, aceitar and prender (pago, aceito, preso) while the rest of the examples are seen to a lesser extent. Keep in mind that you will hear the ‘wrong’ way used in informal Portuguese (ie. tinha entregue), but wrong and right, as you may find, are debatable. The participle lesson starts with the example below.

Ex. Ele tinha ENTREGUE or ENTREGADO os documentos?

The correct form is “tinha entregado“. When the verb has two participles (abundant verbs), the rule is the following: With the auxiliary verb ter (or haver), the regular form (with the ending of -ado or -ido) should be used.

Ex. Ele tinha entregado os documentos.

With the auxiliary verb ser (or estar), the irregular form should be used.

Ex. Os documentos foram entregues por ele.

Observe other examples:

Ter (or Haver)/ Ser (or Estar)
aceitado/aceito
acendido/aceso
elegido/eleito
entregado/entregue
expulsado/expulso
extinguido/extinto
imergido/imerso
isentado/isento
matado/morto
morrido/morto
prendido/preso
salvado/salvo
submergido/submerso
suspendido/suspenso

Observations

On principle, this rule applies itself to the verbs ganhar (ganho and ganhado); gastar (gasto and gastado); pagar (pago and pagado); pegar (pego and pegado);

Ex. Isso foi ganho, gasto, pago e pego.

The regular forms are rarely used in Brazil. Many scholars already accept the irregular forms, even with the verbs ter and haver.

Ex. Ele tinha ganho, tinha gasto, tinha pago and tinha pego.

The verbs trazer and chegar aren’t abundant. They use just one participle: trazido and chegado. The forms trago and chego are inacceptable:

Ex. Isso foi trago por mim; Ele tinha chego atrasado. 

The correct form is: Isso foi trazido por mim; Ele tinha chegado atrasado.

Brazil With a Z – New Link

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Today I came across Brasil Com Z (in PT), which is a site for Brazilians who are living and working abroad for a semester or season or longer. In its most basic form, it is what I’ve always wanted to do but instead of Brazilians, they’d be Brazilianists and we could all post our articles to one site/blog.

So far, they’ve got Ana in Provence, Anita in Amsterdam, Barbara in Costa Rica, Flor in Londres, Gabriel in Tókio, Gabriel in Israel, Gil in Roma, Jeanine in Wellington, Karine in Dublin, Karol in Knoxville, Lucy in Murcia, Mirelle in Lyon, Nadja in Buenos Aires, Oscar in Delaware and Glenda in Sevilla…and each of them has their own blog.

WWOOF – Learn to work the land in Brazil

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I want to introduce the Brazilian counterpart of the WWOOF network. If you don’t know about what they do, read the following below, which is from their site or see this trailer for a documentary on them.

“WWOOF Brazil is an information service linking travellers like you with organic farms in Brazil. By joining WWOOF Brazil you get our listing of member farms where you can stay from a week to several months.

Farms listed in WWOOF Brazil are part of a world-wide effort to promote the concept of organic farming, sustainable agriculture and responsible consumer habits. As part of this effort, host farms offer WWOOF members the opportunity to learn by doing. As a guest in a WWOOF farm your learning experience is based on you participating in the daily chores of running the farm. In doing so, you can learn a variety of techniques employed by member farms including organic farming, Permaculture and Biodynamics. In addition to learning about organic farming, you can also learn about the local ecology and culture while getting to meet fun and interesting people.

Daily chores at member farms may include harvesting, preparing soil for planting, milking, cleaning pens, digging trenches, maintaining fences and such. Each farm has its own chores, rules and schedules. Please get more information directly with the farms you are interested in working at.”

Being Present – 2 for 1

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There are two verbs that generally mean ‘to witness’ or “to make an appearance”, which are used when one wishes to be formal or simply sound smart. Other possibilities to get the same point across are to use “assistir (a)” or “estar presente“.

Presenciar – To witness, to be present during.

Ex. Ele presenciou o assalto ontem.
Ex. He witnessed the assault yesterday.

Comparecer (can be followed by a/em/com) – To be present, to attend, to make an appearance.

Used a lot for appearing in court.

Ex. Eu não vou comparecer na próxima reunião.
Ex. I am not going to attend the next meeting.

Reading Theses & Dissertations

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I found a link for anyone interested in reading Brazilian theses and dissertations. There’s a large databank at the Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações, and as you might suspect, the research is in Portuguese. Of course, there’s always Google Scholar, in case you are interested in a more universal database.

Donate Words for a Good Cause!

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“Lembrem-se que o ceu e sempre azul, mesmo quando as nuvens tentam esconde-lo.”

“Remember that the sky is always blue, even when the clouds try to hide it.”

That was the message I sent to the Mário Penna Hospital in Bahia, which cares for cancer pacients. It launched a project called Doe Palavras (Donate Words). It’s easy, quick and everyone can donate a little…or a lot! The messages, once compiled, will be made into a book and given to other hospitals.

Access the site doepalavras.com.br, write a positive message (short, like Twitter) and it appears on the big screen for the pacients that are getting treated. A few words can help and the initiative has everything going for it so use it, share it and write!

#doepalavras from 3bits on Vimeo.

The Hypothetical – Curiosities

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My Brazilian ex girlfriend used to start her ‘what if’ (hypothetical) questions with ‘E se‘ (And if) and while that’s just fine as she was speaking correctly in her own language, she would translate it into English and ask a ‘what if’ by starting with “And if…” which slightly amused me but only because I understood where she was coming from when she constructed the sentence.

Usually an example would come up while watching a movie, where she’d say “e se ele morreu?” and I would respond, “I don’t know, let’s just watch it,” because I’m annoying like that when watching a good film. In any event, the Portuguese hypothetical started to make sense as a way to get to the point, otherwise one would have to say something like “E o que aconteceria se…”

On a side note, my German ex-girlfriend used to say ‘oder‘ at the end of some sentences and from my basic German, I knew that meant ‘or’, which meant in my English-speaking brain that she was speaking strangely. I started then to add ‘or’ to the end of some of my sentences in English to bother her…but I failed because she thought it was normal. Go figure! Later, I found out that the ‘oder‘ tag means ‘right?’

Camelô – Etymology

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Camelô – Traveling Merchant

The origin of the word is the Arabic khamlat, a name that was given to the rustic commercialized fabrics sold in open-air markets and touted loudly by the merchants, the camelôs of the previous century. At this point, the verb cameloter (to sell trinkets) was popularized in France by the street sellers who chose high-traffic areas to sell their wares. It is the street salesman that sells his kitsch to bemused audiences. With their power of persuasion, many times these true artists, when victorious in their craft, become rich and turn into the owners of their empires. The Brazilian media magnant Sílvio Santos has said he will never forget the teeming Largo da Carioca in Rio de Janeiro where he began his vivid career. – Source (translated by me)

It is important to note that camelôs differ from ambulantes in that the former has a fixed location while the latter is ambulatory.