On the Road to Find Out

Two things have coincided heavily in Sao Paulo this week. The first is the fact that I have suddenly realised that I am off to Trindade for my proper holiday on Friday, and suddenly needing very much to get all my writing assignments in this week. Annoyingly Time Out have pulled in their deadline to early March for their April edition, which makes trying to find independent gigs to write about extremely tricky, and has also culminated in a deadline that ends with the carnival, which seems a ridiculous idea!

Thankfully this has also coincided with the return of bad weather in Sao Paulo. The weather has in fact been so bad as to be English. Instead of the normal sunny mornings, stormy afternoons and ridiculously warm nights we are simply getting drizzle 24/7. If I was just in Sao Paulo for a couple of days I would be pretty pissed off, and telling everyone I met not to come here, which I might do anyway.

On a productive note, an article I wrote a week or so ago has just gone online at Rio Times. You can read it HERE. Unsurprisingly the editor took away my criticisms of the Rio government for trying to stop anyone ever promoting something set in the favela, when they in fact should be promoting these very films. O Samba Que Mora Em Mim, the film I wrote about here, is one of the films, and lets you eavesdrop on all the amazing people living within the Mangueira favela in Rio. It’s one of the most arresting and visually appealing films I’ve seen in a long time. It’s just a shame the government only wants people to see the carnival queen!

My initial plans to update this blog each day have obviously gone by the wayside. 34 degree heat and trying and failing to get to concerts and film premieres in far away neighbourhoods have put to that. In these circumstances, when I look at my notes over the last few days and realise that I could probably write an essay I will simply cut to the chase, through the power of bullet-points!

• Once you start on the Jimmy trail there is no way back, as delicately displayed by Herbster at every opportunity. Following the premiere of O Samba Que Mora Em Mim (that was so cruelly denied) I was all set for another premiere. This time it was for Timeless Brasil, a live recording of three concerts by Mulatu Astuke, Suite for Ma Dukes and Arthur Verocai filmed in the US a couple of years ago. As I had spoken to Coleman (one of the guys behind the film) and also kept in close contact with their PR guy it wasn’t too difficult acquiring a free pass for the show. The great news was that it was at Espaco Unibanco, the same place where I had failed to see O Samba Que Mora Em Mim. Perfect, except that it wasn’t. I arrived at Espaco Unibanco and suddenly fear struck my heart. I looked around at all the film posters but couldn’t see anything for Timeless Brasil. It turns out there are a tonne of Espaco Unibancos in Sao Paulo and I was at the wrong one. Of course none of this would have been too bad had this cinema not been a 1h15 minute journey from where I’m staying. That’s 2 and a half hours there and back. You could say my lack of blog entries could be perfectly explained by this. The whole episode reminded me of something I said at work before I left. Claire had said how she was surprised at how I could remember everything without writing anything done. I told her that normally I remember 70% of what people tell me and then just rely on the fact that they’re gonna forget that extra 30% too. Unfortunately when you don’t even look to see where a place is it doesn’t matter what you remember so I don’t know quite where I was going with that one. Anyway…
• I shaved my beard off. The hostel then got a complaint by an elderly Brazilian woman. She said she couldn’t use the bathroom, there was hair everywhere. She wasn’t wrong! It was a mess!
• Talking of the hostel, I’m staying at Oca Hostel, and will be improving their website over the next couple of weeks. You can check out the current site HERE. It’s a nice place other than the fact that two of the owners have just decided that they want to seperate. It appears that the end of a marriage ain’t too pretty.
• I’ve somehow managed to get my chance with Time Out Sao Paulo. They want me to write previews of upcoming underground gigs in Sao Paulo for the next few months. I have til Monday to find one for March. Where are all the bleeding interesting concerts when you want them! [As a side note, I just saw that LCD Soundsystem are playing here soon. A ticket for that will set you back R$280, that’s around £130/140, which seems a little steep. I then found out that the Paul McCartney gig last year cost between R$400 for the cheap seats and R$5,000 for the most expensive. I’m not even gonna go into the maths of that one, but it is clear to see why Macca is still topping that Rich List!]
• And one last note. Today I spent most of the day with Alfredo Bello, a producer/bassist who performs as DJ Tudo. The guy has over 18,000 records and we had a go at listening to most of them. I now know what Emboladas and Cocas are all about, as well as what music from Suriname and Cape Verde sounds like, not to mention the sheer frill of Brazilian Hard Grooves! Very nice. You can check out a little of this guy’s style right here: