Modern Brasília

I took a trip to Brasília on my recent holiday to Brazil.

Brasília is Brazil's capital city, deep in the interior of the country.

But Brasília is barely 50 years old, all built between 1957 and 1960.

The whole city is built in the superbly modern shape of an airplane. Its central fuselage is a long ceremonial boulevard surrounded by amazing modernist buildings like these in the photos.

Brazil's Humble Plastic Chair

One of my favourite things about Brazil is the way they use humble plastic chairs. I see it as very Brazilian.

 To us, they're simple garden furniture. In Brazil, these plastic chairs come in all sorts of colours, sometimes branded with company logos.

They're at bars, restaurants, a party can be pitched up anywhere. They're arranged haphazardly. It's not important to be neat, to be formal, what matters is somewhere to sit, to eat, to drink, to talk, to joke, to see what's going on around you, to be together with friends or family.

So for all the wonderful symbols of Brazil - landmarks, caipirinhas, flags, flora and fauna -  the simple plastic chair looms large for me.

Rio de Janeiro streets

Rio de Janeiro does not have one main shopping street - unlike Buenos Aires or Istanbul.

While it might seem like Rio's beaches are the hub of all energy, there is still lots of life and activity to please people-watchers in Rio.  As I walked around the city, here's what I saw...

• A poodle wearing four bright blue socks
  
• A thin hipster-ish man wearing skinny jeans and a smock shirt playing a picalillo in middle of traffic
  
• A middle-aged man fainting on the street, with people crowding around trying to help
  
• A young dude working the door of a restaurant checking out every guy that passed him by
  
• A mother calming her truculent little boy, saying "tranqui, tranqui!"
  
• A good-looking man walking along a busy street wearing only a skimpy sunga. Only in Rio!
  
• A young teenage boy pleading through tears and wails with a shop security guard
  
• A tiny old lady clutching her phone to her face and conspiratorially covering her mouth
  
• Guys carrying used drinks cans in fishing nets, a modern update on a traditional economy.
  
• A man selling books in the middle of traffic while wearing a bright grass green suit and carrying a huge sign. 

Hot Xmas

I recently spent Christmas and New Year in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Christmas in hot climates is pretty surreal, seeing decorations in sweltering sunshine or against bright blue skies.

Christmas lights and decorations vary from pretty and good to ridiculous and tacky. Overall though, for us in Europe, they light or cheer up the darkest time of the year and bring a little glitter to the gloom.

Not so in the southern summer, but they were rather entertaining and fun for me to see how Christmas traditions translate in different climates.

My favourite sight - which I saw from a car so no time to photograph - was of a Christmas tree on a beach, made of clear and green discarded plastic bottles.

World Cup in London: Brazil

I went to watch Brazil -v- Colombia on Friday evening in Willesden.

There are lots of Brazilian shops and cafés in Willesden Junction / Harlesden, so I was expecting a good atmosphere.

Wandering around before the match, I saw lots of Brazilian flags adorned houses and shops - mainly a combination of Brazilian beauty and butchers.

I first settled in a small café bar, which was pretty quiet to begin with... until Brazil scored their first goal a few minutes into the match.

It's all got a bit more lively here since the goal. A delightfully flighty woman is going around painting everyone's face green and yellow.

Nonetheless, mid-way through the first half, I decided to wander on and found The Misty Moon in Harlesden.

This large bar was full, packed full of Brazilian fans. It was a huge party.

It sounds like there's a ten piece samba band up the front of this bar. I can't see (it's so crowded), so there may well be.

There's a lot of Mexican waving going on to a Beyonce's Single Ladies soundtrack.

Two guys on a stage up the front are DJing and throwing gifts to the crowd. A bright blue raffia wig has just gone flying.

Huge energy here. A woman turns to her friend saying "You need to calm the F down" before blowing her vuvuzuela for more than a full minute.

Into the second half, Brazil were in the lead, and the celebrations had begun. Lots were paying no attention to the game, choosing to dance, laugh, party.

Then out came a huge Brazilian flag, the size of an average London flat.

A Brazilian flag the size of a house has been unfurled, with lots of enthusiastic waving.

A banner outside the bar was emblazoned with Rio de Harlesden. It really felt like I was in Brazil when the final whistle went.

The singing and dancing went on for ages. As I left, all along my bus route, more and more groups of Brazil fans were waving their flags and celebrating their victory.

Imagine what it'll be like if they actually win the World Cup!

Variations on a Brazilian flag

When I was in Belgium, I saw this flag hanging from a building. It's the Brazilian flag re-purposed with Belgian colours.

I love this take on the Brazilian flag, re-purposed to support Belgium in this year's football World Cup.

So I decided to make a few more flags:

 This could be any number of countries - Australia, Costa Rica, Chile, France, Croatia.

Cameroon.

Colombia or Ecuador

Netherlands - though I suspect they're more likely to have a big, bright orange flag.

Germany

 Portugal

1

Iran or Mexico or Italy

Ivory Coast

 Nigeria

Spain

Switzerland

Uruguay or Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sights in Brazil

My final post about Brazil - here are some of the other things I saw!

• A mouse scuttles out of a shop onto the footpath. Some girls shriek. A young man rushes out behind the mouse, chases it, stamps on it, and kicks it out into the road. "Ooh, couragi," coo the girls.
• A woman on the gay beach at Ipanema, determinedly chatting up every man she could find, with raucous laughter, coy glances and a huge bottle of wine.
• Muscle milk muscle growth supplement on the menu in a cafe. The Brazilians do take their muscles seriously...
• A bar playing only the hits of Toni Braxton.

Love in Brazil

In Brazil, passengers get on buses, say hello to the drivers and pay attendants before passing through little turnstiles.

At one stop in Rio de Janeiro, an older woman boarded. Most likely in her late 60s, she wore chunky jewellery and a long tight black dress - very Shirley Bassey in warm weather. She caused quite a kerfuffle at the turnstile, holding up other passengers while she searched amongst her many handbags for money.

Eventually, exasperated, she tossed several of the bags across the turnstile, hurtling them into an empty seat.

Gesticulating wildly, she seemed to be berating a younger, burly black man who was hovering behind her.

Once she'd paid - with a flurry of hands and dramatic utterances - and was through the turnstile, she turned to the man, embraced him, kissed him full on the mouth and then took her seat.

The man jumped off the bus, waving goodbye to the woman. She blew him a kiss through the window, as he made the "call me" hand-sign to her from the street.

Favela Rio

When in Rio, I decided to visit a favela. I wrestled with this - going to a favela felt a bit like going to point and stare. I decided not to go on a favela tour but instead go on a new cable car to Complexo do Alemão favela in the north of the city.

The cable car connects Complexo do Alemão wih Bonsucesso station, which is a short trip from Rio's Central Station.



The overall trip in the cable car is about 16 minutes, though longer if you get off at every stop along the way like I did.

It soars above a jumble of houses, electricity wires, satellite dishes, corrugated iron roofs and patched up streets.



I went on a Wednesday morning. All below the cable car was quiet, calm, hardly anyone to be seen. I had expected to see busy bustling streets, but these were mainly quiet residential areas. The only sound I heard was Britney Spears' I wanna go blasting out from a stereo.



At the top station, I got out and went for a small wander. A few small kiosks and shops were clustered near the cable car station, but no other amenities were to be seen.

I bought a drink from one shop-kiosk, freshly painted and seemingly newly installed.

The friendly guys behind the counter urged me to follow them on facebook. They seemed delighted to see visitors from other places, and with the long, complicated history of their neighbourhood hopefully now behind them, I wish them well with their new business.

Beautiful Brazil

I've recently been to Brazil, visiting Iguaçu Falls and Rio de Janeiro. It was a trip of superb landscapes and vistas.

Iguaçu Falls are vast, a huge grouping if massive waterfalls straddling the Brazil-Argentina border.

 

The view from Brazil is vast, showing their huge extent, their overall force and revealing rainbows. On the Argentina side, you can get closer, sensing their overwhelming power and speed.

In Rio, vistas are equally beautiful, showing all the  city's famous places: the beautiful beaches at Copacabana and Ipanema, Sugarloaf Mountain and everything in between.

 

Rio seems studded with forested hills, as though they recently sprouted up within the city (of course it was the other way round).

The Christ the Redeemer statue looks down on the city, not looming over it, more neatly perched like a parakeet.

World Cup in London: Brazil

Or: Futebol! Football with London's Brazilian fans

I went to watch Brazil -v- North Korea with Brazilian fans. My first choice of venue - Guanabara - was super-busy with long queues. Covent Garden was thronged with Brazilian fans so, like many others, I decamped to another bar - the Shakespeare's Head in Holborn.

Everyone was Brazilian tonight, even those who were not actually Brazilian. Brazil's very flattering yellow and blue jerseys were adopted with aplomb. One woman even applied fabulously fetching gaudy yellow, blue and green eye shadow.

The first half passed by without real incidence - the Brazilians were just chatting each other up: "You look like Lewis Hamilton," a pretty girl thrilled. "You have lovely hair," the man replied. "Can you say 'they are jealous' or 'they feel jealous'?", she asked, pointing at her male friends.

By the second half, with Brazil yet to score, the Brazilians fans were fretting frantically. One man shouted at the players to "shoota with the foota!", filled his glass with an energy drink, crushed the can and started gesticulating wildly.

His cheers worked, and the bar erupted in laughter, whistles and cheers as Brazil scored minutes later. The cheers and whistles continued with Brazil's second goal.

The Brazil fans started drinking and dancing, and barely even noticed North Korea's goal as they celebrated their first World Cup 2010 victory.

Next: A weekend of football with fans of Japan, Denmark and Slovakia. 

Digging Ditto

I went to the Astoria on Saturday night to see The Gossip. My good friend Bintal organised our tickets, and for that I'm super grateful. The Gossip are amazing, they're like some kind of fabulous cake with Beth Ditto as the icing on the cake, with Beth Ditto simultaneously eating the cake too, and probably licking her fingers whilst doing so.

You'll have to take my word for it that The Gossip are in the photos. I was literally shaking with excitement.

But first! There are support acts: PRE were very shouty and very noisy. I was unimpressed. Bonde Do Role's repertoire seemed to consist of taking cheese-tastic uncool songs, adding beats and shouty rapping. Oddness.

• Lady from the band wore yellow and black striped socks, over pink tights, green shorts and a red striped t-shirt over a green t-shirt. Brave is one word. She grinded her crotch, shook her rump and did frenzied faux simulated aerobic sex movements on stage. If she were more co-ordinated, she'd be a Pussycat Doll.

But, now, to the main attraction. The Gossip took to the stage with huge cheers.

• Beth Ditto strutted on stage wearing a silver bin bag over blue leggings. She promptly whipped off the bag to reveal a bright blue spandex body suit and sparkly belt. It was amazing.


• Bintal, in her California tones, described the 'bin bag' as a 'trash bag'. Ditto wore a silver trash bag. Ace!


• They described their song Coal to Diamonds as a gay / lesbian / transexual / bi-curious love song.


• She took the NME to task for "chicken-shitting the fuck out" by not putting her photo on the cover despite placing her at Number One on their Cool List.


• Costume change! Spandex blue catsuit was replaced with a more conservative, but cool, black cropped trousers and voluminous bosom top.


• Standing in the Way of Control is amazing - combining angry guitars and woah-oh's in one song is always immense.