Formerly Live from Brazil

Hello Again.

2010-01-11T21:23:00.004-05:00

A post. An actual post. I know for all my dedicated fan(s) that a year is a long time to wait for my inspiring words of wisdom. The Sopranos were famous for taking a long hiatis between seasons, so I'm in good company. How, dear reader(s), have you survived this long? I hope the past 18 months have been kind to you. .

It's been nearly 4 years now since I left Brazil. I came back in June, 2006. The experience still is vibrant in my mind, and I look forward to my first chance to go back. I'm hoping in the next few months there may be an opportunity to travel there for work.

Here is an intesting video about chairs. I know, perhaps not as exciting as the dog catching balls from the tennis ball shooter, but clearly this will be a more enjoyable post to have on top than the Villa Alegre deal.

Perhaps one day when I'm ready to give up my current career, I'll become a documentary film maker. I really enjoy these type of short films - seemingly about nothing, but the documentary maker is able to pull the pieces together in a way that is enjoyable, clever, and tells a story.

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment from Real Good Chair on Vimeo.

Mystery Solved.

2008-06-02T23:42:00.008-04:00

This one has been bugging me for years. As a child of the 70's, I was of the fortunate generation to have been reared by the best TV shows. Partridge Family to Gilligan, Brady Bunch to Magic Garden, all classics, and I'm sure still stand up well with the 5-8 crowd. Anyway, apart from all the other shows we all know and love, there has been this one that has been bugging me for years that I couldn't remember the name of. What I remember is that in the mid-70's it came on really early on Saturday mornings; I mean nobody else in the house is awake and you had to sneak downstairs to watch kinda early. The show was a Spanish and English mix of some sort, and had a Mexican village theme. I remember the opening had fly-by of a Mexican village, and for some reason I picture a ferris wheel - but, I'm not sure how that ties into the Mexican theme (are ferris wheels popular in small Mexican villages?). And, there was this theme song that occasionally pops into my head - not the whole song, just this "la la la la la la la la la la la la la" part. I finally gave a good search in Google, trying all permutations of "saturday morning spanish tv show" for the search terms, and finally got it.

It was called "Villa Alegre". Strangely, nothing of it on Youtube. And, not much more anywhere else. But, I did find the theme song. I'll warn you now about the "la la la ..." part. It's going to stick in your head the rest of the day. Only now I realize if I had remembered just the next two words after the la-la's I would have solved this years ago...

Here's the link to a myspace page dedicated to the show: Villa Alegre

I really don't recall much about the show at all, so the pictures on the myspace page don't ring a bell for me. And, the show was no where near the caliber of the other Saturday morning staples (say Land of the Lost or Superfriends) as evidenced by it's early morning time slot and the number of websites dedicated to it having ever existed (one). But, I'm happy at the moment to have solved a mystery which has been chewing up brain cells for years.

Fetch

2008-03-17T13:35:00.003-04:00

I can imagine my brother's dog doing this for hours. Its funny the way he looks at the machine like it was a person after he gives it the ball. His pavlovian response to the whirring of the motor to raise the barrel is hysterical.

Ashes to Ashes

2007-10-06T22:05:00.000-04:00

Here's a question you don't hear often enough at the airport: "Did anyone bring an urn onto the plane?"

Urn Trouble.

Guess who was caught up in this mess on his way home from Indianapolis this week?

We were first delayed on the ground for about a half-hour, then at one point a police off icier got on the plane asked if anyone had brought an urn on board, which was the first time I heard that question on a plane. Two minutes later, we had to de-plane (I think that's an official term) and go through security again. After long lines for security, then to get back to the terminal, then to get back on the plane, we took off about 2 hours late. Nobody knew what was going on until we got back on the plane.

At the time it was happening, we didn't really know what was the story with the urn. I must admit though, apart from the frustration of de-planing and going through security again, it was relatively well organized, and the TSA did a fine job of moving hundreds of people back through security in a reasonable amount of time. It would be nice if they lines always moved that fast.

Sold.

2007-09-29T22:12:00.000-04:00

After over 1-1/2 years on the market, my townhouse finally sold. This past Friday I closed on my townhouse, and it took all week, but we are now fully moved into our new place. We are renting a little house in a nearby town, just a few minutes from my old crib. Honestly, the townhouse never seemed like home to us after we returned from Brazil. It seemed small, and we just didn't feel the same about it. While we were ex-pats, we had rented the townhouse out for about a year, and it sat vacant for the other year. Over that time, Edge got bigger and we grew accustomed to the luxury of nearly 3x the space and living detached from our immediate neighbors. Our biggest regret was that we didn't put the townhouse up for sale in 2005 or so when the market was at it's peak. I bet it would have sold for another 10% beyond what I got for it this week. But, hindsight is 20/20 I guess. Regardless, I am very happy with the check I received on Friday.

For now, we're renting and plan to wait out the market at least a few more months before getting serious about looking for a place to buy. Why rent? We like this area, and will be looking around here for our new house.

But, for now, it's a time to relax a bit. Ahhh.

Bourdain

2007-08-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

My favorite TV show and the topic of my blog have collided, producing the finest 60 minutes of television since the Sopranos finale. Now that Sopranos is off the air, I'm down to routinely watching just three shows - No Reservations, Dirty Jobs, and Battlestar Galactica - and Battlestar is on hiatus right now. (Yes, Battlestar Galactica, and no, not the Lorne Greene/guy-from-"The-A-Team" version).

"Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations" is on the Travel Channel, Mondays at 10pm. You've probably seen it, if not, your should. Each episode, Tony travels to a different country and offers his New Yorker-edged, surly commentary on how the local culture is influenced by the local foods. He comes off a bit gruff at times, but seems to be a genuine person at heart. I think he'd be the kind of person I could sit an have a few beers with.

What makes the travel aspect of his show different is that Bourdain avoids the touristy areas or cliche attractions, and heads straight to where the locals eat. He has broken down my fear of street food (to some degree anyway) because it's what he claims is the most authentic local cuisines.
I'm just about finished with his book, "Kitchen Confidential" which gives a behind the scenes look at life in the kitchen of your favorite restaurants. Really, it's enlightening. You'd be amazed at what's going on back there.

Last night's episode featured Tony in Brazil, more specifically São Paulo. He met up with a couple of his Paulista pals and went to local markets, restaurants, street vendors, and bars. I noticed Tony drinking Brahma, Bohemia, Skol, I believe Antartica, and, of course, caipirinhas. He had Bolinhas de bacalhau (cod-fish fritters), linguiça cebolinha (sausage with onions), cheese on a stick, feijoada, and what looked like picanha. I've told you about all these things before in other posts, so you know that I miss them. He was mainly in São Paulo city, but took a side trip to São Sebastião, a beach town not too far from the city which we had been to many times en route to Ilha Bela. You can tell from the episode that he truly enjoyed being there. The genuine friendly nature of the Brazilian people, that I have tried to explain in the blog, comes through in the episode.

It's on again this Friday night, 8pm and 11pm. Check it out and let me know what you think.

First Day in SJC (August 17, 2004)

2007-08-07T20:18:00.000-04:00

On August 17, it will be three years since we first arrived to live in Brazil. I had been there on at least 9 separate trips since January, 2004, but this was when we moved as a family to stay. I still remember the final preparations at home in the US and the ride to JFK airport where we were still straightening out our visa paperwork in the back of the car. We were all fairly nervous and excited about the big move. When we got there, our driver brought flowers for my wife to welcome her, and I think some candy for Edge. When we arrived at our house in SJC, our real estate agent and our soon-to-be best friends in Brazil where there waiting for us outside. This was the first time my wife and Edge had seen the house, and of course there was a lot of excitement as we toured the house. The real estate agent had stocked the 'fridge and pantry with food (some we had never heard of before). Then, Reinaldo (a local driver who also became our friend) spent the afternoon with us driving us around to the important local spots (Walmart, Carrefour, the malls, McDonalds for Edge). Then, if memory serves, I went to work in the afternoon! It was an exciting day I don't think any of us will forget.

(Your might remember the house from an earlier post: Alemeda dos Acaras, 23

Over the next few weeks, we explored SJC on our own, and started becoming locals.

Here's a video I dug up out of my archive that I made to entice our family and friends to come to Brazil.

Three years ago. I can't believe it. I still think of our time there very often, and miss it. It was a life changing event, and a period of our lives we can never forget.

Talent

2007-07-19T23:00:00.000-04:00

One of the starting realizations that I think we all have now, thanks to YouTube, Break.com, et al, is that there are an endless number of people out there with talent whose skills would otherwise only be known to their friends. From music to clever video editing to stupid human tricks (ok, Letterman was the pioneer of showcasing these). Here are some I found today:

Guitar Kid

I know a guy who probably could have played this when he was 14 too, but with an Eddie Van Halen spin.

Soccer Guy

Amazing Soccer Dribble - Watch more free videos

I thought he might be Brazilian, but it seems from the comments that he's a street artist in Amsterdam.

For I must be travelling on, now

2007-07-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

30 years ago this week.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird (live) - ZappInternet

After the 12 minutes are up, I suggest a moment of silence.

"Best Parts for Barbecue"

2007-06-09T14:59:00.001-04:00

I was going through some old papers, and came across a "cow-map" from our favorite Churrascaria in SJC. This particular card is a bit beat-up, since I must've folded it up a few times and stuck in my pocket for safekeeping. There is a name and phone number of company VP on the back which I wanted to save. I remember this particular dinner. There was a VP leadership team in town, and of course, that meant they stopped by our plant for a tour. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner at the Villa D'aldeia since it was our customary place to bring the out-of-towners. It was a great "networking" event for me, and I'm still in touch with some of them today. Being a tour guide for visiting company dignitaries was a fringe benefit of my time in Brazil.

Anyway, as I've probably explained before about Churrascarias, there is a bewildering variety of meats to choose from, and this user-friendly guide helps you to choose which part of the beast you'd like to try. This one had the English translations, which was helpful when we first got there. I enjoyed most of the types listed on the front, except Cupim. What's Cupim, you say? Check out the map.

The Man of the Year who Copied

2007-06-05T23:22:00.000-04:00

Another couple movie recommendations this week from FLFB. I'm getting some serious mileage out of my gift Netflix account. And, sticking to my Brazilian theme, here they are:

1. "The Man of the Year".

No not "Man of the Year" (Robin Williams, 2006), this is "O Homem do Ano" (The Man of the Year). The story of a guy who does his community a favor, of sorts, and becomes a local hero. It's kind of what you might get if Tarantino directed Goodfellas on the mean streets of Rio de Janeiro. Action packed, certainly, but no Mr. Wolf. For me, it reminded me of why my boss in Brazil was so worried when we went to Rio by ourselves. One of the central themes of the movie is just how scared the ordinary Cariocas (as citizens of Rio are called) are day-to-day and how commonplace robberies, assaults, and outright murder are there. It's ironic that the more fences, bars, guards, and video cameras you have to protect your home; the more likely the crimminals will target you for a robbing. If you liked Goodfellas, and can handle that level of brutality, rent it.

2. "The Man Who Copied"
A more light-hearted, yet still a bit violent, portrayal of life in Brazil. In a way, it's a classic boy sees girl, boy becomes infatuated with girl, boy finally gets his chance type movie ala John Hughes, but without any memorable one-liners. I guess the most notable part for me was the realization of the sense of nostaglia for just ordinary life in Brazil that I've developed. The main character was a Copier-Boy, an actual profession in Brazil. I remember there being copier places all over the cities, even the malls. There are a ton of legal documents that Brazilians have to deal with, and most of them need to be notorized, in triplicate, at these special shops where people stand around for seemingly hours for their chance to get their copies. And every page needs at least 1 or 2 official stamps. The places are awash with brief flashes from the copier, then the STOMP-STOMP-STOMP of high-speed, manual, ink-and-rubber stamping. Kinda charming, really. There would usually be a little snack cart somewhere nearby to pass the time at, eating coxinhas, drinking a cerverja, and chatting it up with the locals. As for the movie, worth a peek if you want to get a glimpse of everyday life there.

In about a week or so, it'll be 1 year since I left Brazil. I can't believe it.

Rio

2007-05-20T23:28:00.000-04:00

I came across this on the web today, and I realized I don't think I've mentioned our three trips to Rio de Janeiro.

Our first was in February '05, just about 6 months after we moved to Brazil. Our best friends in Brazil (an Austrian and Brazilian couple) had been to Rio numerous times, and were our guides. There was also some big meeting at the plant that week, so there were a bunch of "gringos" in town and, well, when in Brazil it seems to be a requirement to visit Rio. So, we went. What stands out in my memory from this trip is caipirinihas on Ipanema beach, finding the "Top Beer" in Ipanema, and making the Rio to SJC run in record time (about 3-1/2 hours). Of course, the awe of seeing Rio for the first time is indelible. It's a beautiful city. Good times, indeed.

Our second trip was in September '05 when my brother, his wife, and 2-year old son came down for a visit. This time, we drove into Rio ourselves, unescorted. A big step for us. My boss was like a nervous father about us going alone. He called me the night before to make sure I really knew what I was doing. I assured him we'd be fine. You see, even Brazilian's have a fearful respect of Rio's high crime rate. I would say 75% of my co-workers had never been to Rio, and would never go. I guess it's similar to what we might say about visiting Camden or Newark after dark. We hired a tour guide for the day, who showed us the highlights of the city.

Our third trip was in March, 2006, when my friend Brian visited. We hired the same tour guide, and again had a great tour of the city. We spent one afternoon walking the length of Ipanema beach, even past Posto 9, and onto the rocks between Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. (Posto 9 means, basically, block 9 of the beach - it's where all those with the best bodies supposedly hang out) We had a few cervejas along the way, of course.

Rio is beautiful, there's no doubt about it. Someday, I'll go back. For now, I'll just enjoy the memories.

Consular Warning

2007-05-11T16:29:00.000-04:00

When you register as an ex-pat with the US Consulate in Brazil, you are placed on their mailing list to receive Consular Warnings. These notices come out from time to time with cautionary advise when trouble is perceived to be imminent. Here's the one I received today:

U.S. Consulate Sao Paulo, Brazil
May 11, 2007

Security Alert Regarding PCC Anniversary

This warden message serves to alert American Citizens resident in Sao Paulo that this Mother's Day, Sunday May 13th will mark the one year anniversary of the First Capitol Command (PCC) violence that plagued Sao Paulo one year ago. The PCC was responsible for three major attacks in Sao Paulo since May 2006. The attacks involved widespread violence throughout the city and the State of Sao Paulo and disrupted public transportation. Public buses, government buildings, banks and gasoline stations were amongst the targets of attack. Although there is no indication at this time that there will be any repeat occurrences of these acts this weekend, the potential and the uncertainty surrounding the PCC's activities continue to exist and the potential to be in the wrong place at the wrong time can occur at any moment.

U.S citizens should be cognizant of potential police activity in their areas with respect to checkpoints and roadblocks and exercise caution especially when using ATM machines. These incidents in particular highlight the importance of insuring that you have good communication at your disposal, including cell-phones.

The incident they are referring to happened just before we left Brazil. It was probably the most notable security-alert situation we encountered during our 2 year stay. The violence erupted when the leader of the PCC (a ruthless Brazilian prison gang - think Bloods or Crypts, only not as nice) was placed in solitary confinement after causing some kind of ruckus - apparently involving a denied request for TVs for the prisoners to watch the upcoming World Cup. The PCC inside, contacted their PCC brethren on the outside (they had cellphones in jail), and what amounted to a mini-war broke out. PCC were shooting police, even off-duty in their homes or out to dinner with their families. Police were shooting PCC members on sight. Tons of buses were burned (they allowed the bus riders to get off first). Burning tire barricades were erected. All the major highways in and out of Sao Paulo were empty - an eerie sight for roads which are normally some of the most congested in the world. Even the malls in SJC were empty.

The violence was mainly centered in Sao Paulo (the city), but it was contagious and soon spread throughout Sao Paulo State. SJC had it's share of incidents as well, and we would all gather around the "Nescafe" espresso machine the next morning to review them. I remember a story of a school teacher in SJC who was killed while walking home from school - just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

We were moderately concerned for a weekend or two. Since we were in a gated community, I think we convinced ourselves the chances were low anything would happen to us, but that was perhaps a bit naive. We limited trips to the Carrefour to a minimum and otherwise kept a low profile.

After it was all over with and the burning busses were extinguished, by the following weekend, things seemed pretty much back to normal. We even ventured our to Sao Paulo a few more times.

More information:
What is the PCC?
News article from May, 2006

Dream Job?

2007-05-08T09:15:00.000-04:00

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270603,00.html

To some, a dream job. To others, the road to dependency. You decide.

Centro do Brasil

2007-04-22T18:15:00.000-04:00

I received 3-month "Netflix" subscription and I've finally started catching up on some movies I haven't seen over the past decade or so. I used to go to movies quite regularly, but I guess with travelling so much and working a hectic schedule, it's been tough. My fist rentals were "Babel" (4 of 5 stars) and "Rushmore" (4 of 5 stars). "Rushmore" has been on my list for years. just never got around to getting it. This was Bill Murray's prototype for his character in "Lost in Translation", which ranks as one of the top movies I remember seeing during all my flights to Brazil and back. I saw "Office Space" (4 of 5) this weekend, another one I hadn't gotten around to, and I can see now why people consider it a classic. The sorta "Beastie-Boy-video-esqe" scene of them smashing the fax machine is hysterical.

I rented "Central Station" the other weekend. I had not heard of it previously, but it received high marks in the foreign film section on Netflix. It's a Brazilian film which won a bunch of international film awards in 1998 when it came out. It's a good story, and not what exactly what I expected. I recommend it if you're looking for a good drama, and want to see some of the more rural areas of Brazil.

Click for movie preview.

The movie follows the main characters from Rio de Janeiro to the some of the poorest regions of Brazil in the Northeast. This is an entirely different Brazil than we were exposed to. Let's face it, we lived a somewhat sheltered and a very comfortable life there. The town we lived in was rated one of the top best in Brazil, was relatively safe, and was in the most affluent state in Brazil. By contrast, the Northeast is the Third World. It's eye-opening to get a glimpse into the lives of the people that live there through this movie. Although extremely poor and struggling at every turn just to get their next meal, they keep a nearly fanatical devotion to God and family. I guess in those circumstances, you need to have something else to focus on rather than reality. See it and you'll know what I mean.

Marsalis the Hutt?

2007-04-19T23:55:00.000-04:00

This. Is. Awesome.

A video mashup of two of my favorite movies. Congrats to whoever made this:

As a director, producer, videographer, key grip (whatever that is), and editor at zip1010productions, I wish I had the time and a vision to put one of these together.

7 Minutes

2007-04-03T20:30:00.000-04:00

Summary of first six Sopranos' seasons in 7 minutes. Excellent work. Congratulations to whoever made this. It will no doubt soon be everywhere on the net. No, not just 'cause I linked it...

Then again, this isn't so bad either...
Click here for FULL SCREEN.

France

2007-03-31T20:01:00.000-04:00

The past couple of weekends, I was in France. One of the projects I am involved with at work required a weeklong visit to a client's site in Grenoble, France. Travel is one of the perks I have in my job, but the chance to travel internationally has been unfortunately rare as of late. So, I jumped at this chance, even taking my wife along for some vacation time. We wound up spending about 11 days total in France - starting with three days in Paris, about a week in Grenoble, then a weekend in Lyon. The trip was great - we saw the famous sites of Paris, ate a lot of fantastic food, and had the chance to explore a bit on our own. Our vacation style can be best described as "active self-guided exploration". Prior to the trip, we scoped out the places we wanted to see on the internets, and then found our way once we got there.

What surprised us the most about travelling across France might surprise you too. Rude French people? No. Actually, we felt like we busted that myth. We found the folks there to be downright pleasant and helpful. The shocking thing was that there is graffiti everywhere. Finding it in the cities was not shocking, but looking out the train window for three hours en route from Paris to Grenoble, it seemed every brick wall, overpass, and stationary object was decorated with some type of "street art". Somehow, now I don't feel as bad about the tagging I see in Jersey.

Here's a travel tip: When driving lost in a city, for instance Lyon, find yourself a bus-stop and check out the little kiosk. You will often find a map of the city with a "you are here" (vous êtes ici) indicator which you can use to adjust your route. Worked for us. Perhaps it was fortunate we found our way safely to our hotel. As you can tell from this photo I snapped, it appears that Lyon has some fairly liberal gun laws.

Out of the Office, Part Deux

2007-03-24T04:07:00.000-04:00

Just to clarify my general whereabouts last week:

Out of the Office

2007-03-18T18:03:00.000-04:00

Guess where I was today...

Alemeda dos Acarás, 23

2007-03-02T11:21:00.000-05:00

I miss our house in Brazil. As you can see in the pictures, it was a good looking place, and the perfect size for the three of us. Actually, it was spacious for us - it had 4 bedrooms, 4-1/2 baths with a jacuzzi in the master bath, large den, huge kitchen, maid's quarters, pool, sauna, deck, attached patio BBQ area (my favorite spot in the house), and was easily 3x as large as our house here. The details were top of the line too - exotic hardwood floors and tons of closet space. The living room had slider doors to the deck, and with the doors open, it had a great "bringing the outdoors in" feeling.

Like all the other houses in the development, it was walled off on three sides, the only open side was to the street. This gave the backyard a more private feel, but considering the house next door had bedroom windows that directly overlooked our pool area, and the incessant barking of their pack of dogs, you couldn't completely block out the rest of the world. We were lucky though to have no neighbors behind us - behind us was the common park, tennis courts, BBQ area, and playground - so I believe it was one of the best locations in the development.

The pool and sauna were great. My wife took care of the pool cleaning and chlorinating duties; she liked the challenge. There were plenty of palm trees and other exotic flora around to make the backyard a great place to hang out. In the mornings, hummingbirds were usually drinking from the birds-of-paradise plants. Little lizards were everywhere.

Other houses in the neighborhood were just as nice. Our friends lived across the street in this house. We spent a lot of time over there, enjoying some of Brazil, Chile, and Austria's finest beverages.

Having a comfortable house to live in made the Brazilian expat experience all the more enjoyable for us.

Finally

2007-02-25T18:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally made the update I said was on it's way. There's still some tweaking to be done around the edges, but it'll be ok like this for a while. What started all this was that I liked the 3-column layout better than the two, but it quickly became a game of "well, if I'm going to change this, I might as well change that too", and so the project grew. There are a ton of resources out there on the net for this kind of a conversion, and it was a good chance to dust-off my old coding skills.

It's not recommended to be viewed at resolutions less than 1024 x 768, and best at higher rates.

I have a few more ideas up my sleave, but I am not going to promise any timetables.

Update

2007-01-31T09:42:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note that I'm still here. I've clearly fallen off the wagon in terms of my weekly posting schedule for FLFB. I have a pretty big change coming for the look of the blog, but I haven't been able to work on it lately. I'm still interested in sharing my Brazilian experiences, and I've been going through a ton a photos and videos I made during our time in South America, so there is enough fodder to keep the site going. I just need to get to it.

Below are a few pictures (not mine) of places I'll eventually be discussing.

Here's a shot from Sao Jose dos Campos, near the mall, about 2km from where our house was:

Here's a scenic shot from Iguazu Falls. About 1 year ago today, we took a 14 hour road trip across Brazil to visit these falls. They were spectacular beyond words, and beyond all concept of what you probably think of when you think of waterfalls. (You're probably picturing Niagara Falls). The place puts Niagara Falls to shame. For some perspective, in the middle of the left edge of the picture, you can see a footbridge. This footbridge was about 1km long, and the picture is probably showing about a third of it. The picture shows only a few of the 275 falls that are in this area.

Almost there...

2007-01-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

Ok. So, I didn't quite hit my self-described deadline of getting the new and improved FLFB up and running over the Holidays. Sure, I had time off, but I was running around quite a bit to family affairs and the like. And, it takes time to redesign the site, and a lot of research on how to program in Blogger script. I'm getting there. Be patient if you can.

Also, I'm still having some nagging issues even logging into Blogger. It seems since they went from Blogger Beta to Blogger 2.0, I somehow lost my ability to login directly. So, even logging in to make the changes takes a little longer.

While you wait, here are some happy scenarios to ponder. Happy Thoughts.

Feliz Natal!

2006-12-24T14:57:00.000-05:00

The weather has been unusually warm the past few weeks - yesterday it was near 60°F (about 16°C). 16°C is considered cool, borderline cold there. I used to keep my office at about 20°C, and my staff would literally bring jackets with them for meetings. For easy conversions of °C to °F, here's the trick I found: double then add 30°. It's approximate, of course, but close enough to know if you need to wear short or long sleeves. Converting weights and measures took some getting used to, and the English system sure is challenging compared to metric. It's no wonder that 99% of the world uses metric.

Here's hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. I'm off next week, and plan to make an overhaul to the blog, so stay tuned...

Someone caught Santa chillin' in Rio:

Still here...

2006-12-21T09:47:00.000-05:00

I've been a little slow posting the past few weeks, what with the upcoming Holidays and all. I've been having some rather frustrating log-on issues with Blogger which has kept me off pace. In the meantime, I've been organizing our various pictures and videos from the past few years, and working on a few upgrades for FLFB, which you should be seeing in a few weeks. Stay tuned...

37000

2006-12-15T16:41:00.000-05:00

I flew over the Amazon many, many times over the last few years, and never realized there was air-traffic control no coverage zone there. Apparently, it’s widely known within the air controller circles, and probably the kind of thing they talk about when they get together for picanha and Brahma on the weekends. You’ve all no doubt heard about the mid-air collision that occurred over the Amazon a few months ago involving a passenger jet and a corporate jet. The collision occurred at 37,000 feet. Here’s a link to a blog of one of the passenger’s on board the corporate jet who is writing to clear the names of the pilots. Reading through the stories of alleged corruption, cover-ups, worker strikes, and death threats for the two pilots, I can’t help but be reminded of “A Death in Brazil” (the book I told you about in a previous post). The situation is different, but the web of intrigue and drama seems straight out of a novela.

Following the continuing story here:
http://joesharkeyat.blogspot.com/

Cultural Learnings

2006-12-04T00:50:00.000-05:00

Here's another funny Skol beer commercial. The last few seconds are the funniest.

It might seem odd that this commercial would be shown in Brazil - it could be misinterpreted that Brazil couldn't win any other way than cheating. Clearly, if that was the true message, the commercial writers and producers would not be able to show themselves on the streets anywhere in Brazil for fear of reprisals. So, I believe this is an example of a cultural perception bias. Here in the US, we tend to follow rules more strictly than in Brazil, for instance, so we would view this commercials as an outrageous act. But, I believe in Brazil this is probably perceived as a creative way to humiliate the Argentinians (their arch-rivals in soccer - think Yankees/Red Sox times 100).

Believe it or not, this concept of cultural differences towards following rules was a lesson we learned from our Cross-Cultural Trainer before we left for Brazil (more about this in another post). In anthropological terms, it's known as Trompenaars' laws of Universalism vs. Particularism. According to the class, Germans and the Scandinavians tend to be the strictest rule followers; The Chinese, Russians, and certain Latin American cultures tend to be less driven by the means, and more focused on the results. I really enjoyed our CC training class - I find these kinds of differences fascinating, which is probably one reason I enjoyed my time in Brazil so much. I looked forward to discovering these cultural differences or linguistic differences. (Overview article here, more in-depth cultural differences discussion here).

Generalizing here a bit... My perception was that the people in Brazil tended to find creative and unique solutions to problems; solutions which may somewhat push the boundaries of "the rules"; the kind of solutions that once the result was achieved - the rule that was overcome was re-written to match the newly developed solution. The solutions were often based on superior negotiation skills, interpersonal relationships, or just overwhelming personal commitment to finding a way.

In Brazil, they have a word for this: "jeito" (or "jeitinho" diminutive form). Basically, it means finding a way around your problem. Here's an article explaining a little more, although the author tends to focus on illegal activities - this is not what I'm implying about my experience. In my case, I saw this spirit in action at work overcoming challenges or, at times, when my boss's executive assistant would find ways to make things happen for us - like getting certain government paperwork rushed through or dealing with disputes with our cell-phone service provider.

This is an aspect of the culture that really left an impression on me. It's a filter for me now when I'm watching the news, dealing with the crisis of the week at work, or just life in general. I think I'm more apt to try to view a situation from the otherside as a means to finding a win-win solution.

This could also explain why Borat was probably one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. See it if you haven't, and you will appreciate cultural differences, even if they are made up.

Happy Seniors

2006-11-30T00:10:00.000-05:00

A loyal FLFB reader sent me the following link.

"They're much happier"

The article speaks for itself.

Turkey

2006-11-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

Here in the US, it's Thanksgiving. This is our first Thanksgiving in the States since 2003. One year ago today we were exploring Macchu Picchu, Peru. Perhaps ironically, "peru" in Portuguese means turkey.

Two years ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving at our home in Sao Jose dos Campos. For probably the first time in my career, I was working on Thanksgiving day. I followed the Brazilian holiday schedule while working there of course, which turns out to me more lucrative in terms of days out of the office compared to the US schedule. My Brazilian co-workers often refered to Thanksgiving as "the most important holiday for the US". It's hard to say if it's the most important, but certainly does signify a time where familes and friends get together, eat copious amounts of food, and generally enjoy a few days off from work.

We were able to have a mostly authentic Thanksgiving day dinner in Brazil - the only table standard we were not able to find was cranberry sauce. There are no cranberries in Brazil as far as I was able to ascertain. (Blueberries were equally hard to come by, although someone did once tell me they spotted them in Sao Paulo) Beyond this realitively minor setback, we had just about everything else you probably had, or are going to have, today.

As for the turkey, we cooked what is known in Brazil as a "chester", which is either the same as turkey or some subspecies of turkey, I could never quite figure that out. But, it tastes like turkey nonetheless. Regular turkey is called "peru", but this bird they called "chester". Either way, it was tasty, and when cooked just right, comes out looking like this.
We had all the other standards: mashed potatoes, corn and other assorted veggies; I made some bread in our "Breadman" bread maker; salad; and a good bottle of Chilean wine.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Rio 22 - Restaurant Review

2006-11-13T18:43:00.000-05:00

It's time for a new feature of Formerly Live from Brazil: Restaurant Reviews. In particular, you guessed it, Brazilian-themed restaurants. This past weekend, we found out about a Brazilian BBQ-style restaurant that recently opened up in Union NJ, off of Route 22. It's called Rio 22. Having been to quite a few authentic Brazilian BBQ restaurants (I've been meaning to post about these churrascaria restaurants as a topic here on FLFB, but haven't had the chance yet), my review will be based on comparing this restaurant to the real thing.

Atmosphere: Rio 22 has an upscale setting, very comfortable, clearly the kind of place to which you can bring a bunch friends, family, or co-workers and not have to worry about being too loud. This is similar to the ones I remember from Brazil. In some ways, it reminded me of "Porcão" from Rio de Janeiro, so I guess their name fits. Rio22 even had the red/green coasters on the tables to alert your waiter about your receptiveness to more meat.

Salad Bar: Conceptually, very similar. In fact, the layout of the salad bar was nearly identical, with various salads and plates of side-dishes arrayed around the circumference of a large table. The majority of the dishes were not the same as in Brazil, they were more reflective of local favorites. They did have a few fish-dishes (cod fish salad, and something with little octopuses), rice and beans, and chicken strogonoff which can be found in every Brazilian BBQ. I missed the sushi rolls, although Rio 22 has an entire Sushi bar to choose from - just not included with the salad bar (at least that I saw).

Appetizers: Every Brazilian BBQ lays out some appetizers on the table to go with the meal, typically fried bananas, Pão de queijo , french fries, bread, yams, small salgados stuffed with meat, and rice. Rio 22 had similar - french fries, onion rings, fried bananas, and I was happy to see pão de queijo . Very authentic pao de qeuijo, I might add. I hadn't had one of these in a while. Yum.

Drinks: They had imported Brahma. (See "Cervejas" below). I had a couple, but not a bucket. We didn't get any caipirinhas, but I imagine you could get a good one here.

Meat: Mmmmm. Meat. That about says it all. The never-ending, table-served meat included: top sirloin, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, roast beef, flank steak, chicken, lamb, and picanha. A real Atkins lover's dream, and your cardiologist's nightmare. I have been craving picanha ever since my BBQ post. I even stopped in at a local butchershop to ask for it, and they looked at me like I was from Mars. I just saw on Wikipedia that it's called "rump cover" in the US, so maybe I'll try that next time, although, if that's not what it's called, I'll get strange looks asking for that too. Rio 22's was a real treat, and it was excellent. It was really, really good to have this again. Another authentic touch was having farofa and vinaigrette salsa at the table for dipping or topping the meat, respectively.

Coffee: I had a good expresso after the meal, which tasted authentic.

Price. This is the most noteable difference. In Brazil, dinner for two at the local Rodizio always wound up costing about R$100 - including drinks and dessert. (roughly US$35 - US$50, depending on the exchange rate at the time). Here, it was about that much for 1 person. So, roughly 2x-3x the price. It's a bit of an unfair comparison though since meat, fish, and the going rate for cooks and waiters is less expensive in Brazil. For the price, the value you get is more than comparable to a night out at a good restaurant, if not more so given that it's all you can eat.

Recommendation: If you are curious about Brazilian BBQ, definately check Rio 22 out. If you know me, and would like to go, let me know and we'll plan a night. We went on a Sunday afternoon, so I didn't experience the nightlife. I have the feeling Friday or Saturday night would be a fun time to go, judging at least by the size and layout of the bar, and the drink specials.

If you go, let me know if you agree with my recommendation.

Asner: "...how'd you get so smart?"

2006-11-06T22:57:00.000-05:00

<-- Click on TV for classic commercial with the answer. Does anyone else (besides my brother) remember this commercial, circa 1979?

One airplane ritual I forgot to mention in the "Spiderwebs" post was that I usually took along a book to read. I tend to read historical non-fiction - if I am going to spend the time to read something, I want to at least take away some interesting tidbits that I can talk about at cocktail parties. I have read a number of books on the US Civil War, inspired by what I consider to be the greatest documentary of all time, "The Civil War" by Ken Burns, and the opportunities I had to visit various Civil War battlefields. My "library" is heavily weighted with books on this topic.

One of these plane books was related to the topic of, you guessed it, Brazil. I believe I read this sometime during my first few months as an ex-pat; so, I already had some perspective on the country, and the book really came alive for me. The book is "A Death in Brazil" by Peter Robb. Do not be frightened by the title. The book it autobiographical in nature, telling Robbs' story as he meandered his way through Brazil's small towns and big cities, poor villages and fancy resorts. He intermixes Brazilian history, religion, culture, politics, and local foods into an vibrant picture of Brazil through a foreigner's eyes. I learned a lot about the country, and it helped me to adjust and learn to appreciate some of the cultural differences I myself was experiencing. The history of the founding of Brazil is fascinating - the legend has it that Pedro Álvares Cabral found Brazil by "accident" in 1500, however there is more intrigue to the story involving the Pope and secret agreements. The explorer's accounts of first seeing the native women "in all their unashamed nakedness" apparently goes on for pages and pages and pages in his official reports to the King of Portugal; this no doubt contributed to further Portuguese exploration of South America. Robb gets a great deal into the politics of Brazil, and equates it to the beloved Brazilian "novelas" (soap operas). His writing style keeps the narrative moving forward while weaving a good sense of the culture and national identity into the mix. An excellent read. If you have ever visited Brazil, this would be a good book for reminiscing or putting your experience into perspective. If you have never been to Brazil or if you have somehow been inspired by my humble blog to learn more about Brazil - I recommend this book to give you a well-rounded perspective on this fascinating country.

I did manage to read a few more books then my usual pace while spending all that time in the air over the last few years. A couple other books that I remember and can recommend are:

"Between a Rock and a Hard Place", by Aron Ralston. This is an autobiography by Aron Ralston. You may remember his story from TV a few years ago - he was out one day hiking, when a boulder fell on his arm, and after a week or so of being stuck between "a rock and a hard place", he eventually used his trusty pocket knife to perform a self-amputation of his right arm. The story is not just one of "man vs. nature". It's really the story of Aron's passion for hiking, slot-canyoning, propensity for face-to-face encounters with bears, tales of avalanche survival, and assorted tales of outdoor adventure. The lead up to the inevitable dismemberment is well told and tension-filled, and is as much a psychological thriller as the story of the actual amputation. Would you have the guts to do it? I suggest this book for all the "outdoorsy" types. One moral of the story: if you are going to be out alone, doing something somewhat risky, always tell someone where you are going. Had at least one person known of Aron's general whereabouts, he could have been found earlier - not to say he wouldn't have lost the arm, but at least wouldn't have had to drink his own bodily fluids to survive.

"Freakonomics", by Levitt and Dubner. This is a fascinating book if you are into analyzing data and statistics, which I am. The author is an econmist, who pulls together seemingly dis-connected data to develop some interesting theories. For instance, he contends the drop in crime rates in the early-90's correlates to Roe v. Wade.

If you are interested in US Civil War history, I recommend "The Civil War, A Narrative" by Shelby Foote - if Ken Burns' piece is the definitve documentary, Foote's 3-volume set is the definitve narrative. Maybe someday I'll post some pictures from my visits to various Civil War battlefields, but I'll have to think of a good Brazil tie-in.

Interesting History Break

2006-10-31T23:37:00.000-05:00

I'll take "Interesting Brazilian History for 200 please, Jack".

A short break from my musings on Brazil to hear from a few others. I came across two interesting articles today I thought I'd share.

1) Apparently, in the 1930's, Henry Ford started a rubber plantation in the Amazon in an effort to offset rising rubber costs. Due to a combination of rubber tree blight and cultural ineptitude, it was a miserable failure, to the tune of $200 million (in today's dollars).

Henry Ford in the Amazon

2) After the closing battles of the US Civil War, the then Emperor of Brazil sent recruiters to the Confederate states to seek out skilled cotton farmers. Some 10,000 confederates took him up on the offer, and emigrated to Brazil to seek what they considered they had lost at Appomattox. They settled in the town of "Americana", and managed to bring prosperity to the region. Although most of the heritage has now been lost, there are still celebrations reminiscent of the Old South.

Americana

We had talked many times about visiting Americana while we were in Brazil; I believe it was only about 3 hours from our house. I guess we probably should have made more of an effort. It would have been interesting to meet a Stonewall Santos or Paulo Longstreet.

Spiderwebs on a Plane

2006-10-29T20:09:00.000-05:00

This week, while returning from yet another business trip, I realized it was the first night flight I had been on since Brazil. And, as I browsed through my mp3 player's directories, I realized I still have No Doubt's "Tragic Kingdom" onboard - and inspiration for my next post hit me.

Before actually living in Brazil, I spent a good amount of time flying back and forth - roughly 2 weeks here, 2 weeks there, repeat, over and over, for 9 months. I estimate at least 12 trips in 2004 x 10 hours each x 2 (round-trip) = 240 hours = 10 days in the air. As you can imagine, I racked up some serious frequent flier miles - by 2005, I reached "Executive Platinum" status on American, their highest rewards level.

There are a few flight options from NJ to Sao Paulo. Flying direct, overnight, there was a Continental flight out of Newark and a American flight out of JFK. The flights out of Newark were usually 767s, and the rest were 777s. Takeoff time was around 11pm, and arrival at around 6-8am, depending on the time of year. If you wanted to travel during the day, the best bet was early morning on American out of Newark, stopover in Miami, then onto Brazil. This put you on the ground in Sao Paulo by about 10pm. There is also a direct American flight out of Dallas I took a few times during business trips to the West coast. I even once took a Japan Airlines flight out of JFK. This was a direct flight to Sao Paulo, but the plane was just stopping over - most of the passengers already on the plane were Japanese who had just flown the 12+ hours from Tokyo - so the air onboard was a bit stale, to be kind. The fish-jelly-rolls for breakfast didn't help matters either.

The flight from NJ to Sao Paulo is about 9-10 hours and luckily my company has a policy allowing business class for any flight over 6 hours. I preferred the 777's over the 767 for seat comfort and roominess, but the 767 had the advantage in terms of entertainment. On the 767s, each BC seat would receive its own portable DVD player with an album of about 20 DVDs - which included a well-rounded selection of just-out-of-the-theater first runs, old classics, and even TV series like the Sopranos or Cheers. I remember watching "Animal House" one night and laughing hysterically. I watched The Godfather I, II, and most of III on one flight. On the 767, you could watch movies all night, but on the 777 you were limited to just one-time through on whichever movie you picked from the in-flight selection.

The in-flight routine brought comfort to me, and I got very comfortable with it. Knowing what to expect, nearly minute by minute, took a little of the anxiety of the long flight away.

Here's how a typically flight might go, either to or from Brazil:

10:30 - Pre-Board, Flight attendants hand out choice of orange juice, champagne, or water (usually got the water), choice of newspapers (never got 'em - too hard to fold), menu
11:00pm - Take off
11:20pm - Plane leveling off at 35,000ft.
11:25pm - Flight attendants take dinner order - I would usually get the steak, but sometimes the pasta if I was in the mood.
11:40pm - Flight attendants hand out Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones. (These were great).
11:45pm - Warm nuts and wine. (I never thought about warming nuts before serving, but a few seconds in the microwave makes a difference).
12:00am - Hot towels, followed by linens for the tray table
12:00am - Around this time, the in-flight movies would start. I saw more movies in these 9 months than I have in the past 5 years. "Lost in Translation", "City of God" (not the Val Kilmer one), and this Japanese movie with subtitles that I can't remember the name of stand out as a few good ones.
12:10am - Fresh seafood course - cold crab, salmon meat
12:20am - Salad course
12:30am - Dinner
12:45am - Dessert - my favorite was the sundaes with whipped cream and butterscotch or caramel topping. I felt bad for the people in the first few rows of coach who had to smell all of this and had to be satisfied with the "Famous Amos" cookies or whatever they had.
1:00am - Clearing away the dinner plates and linens, and giving out bottles of water.

That was the last service from the Flight Attendants until breakfast. At that point, I'd just finish watching the movie. After the movie, I'd usually surf the in-flight music options. I listened to a lot of jazz and classical music - I even bought a few CDs of some jazz artists I heard onboard.

Or, I would fire up my mp3 player. Then, like now, my mp3 player carried my standard travelling albums:
- Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here" and/or "Dark Side of the Moon"
- a few _Opie_and_Anthony shows
- Shades Apart, "Save It"
- No Doubt, "Tragic Kingdom"
- Other random albums or songs

The album that got the most play was "Tragic Kingdom". I played it so much, it has become forever ingrained in my memory as the soundtrack of my flights to and from Brazil. Hearing the opening drum break and horn line of "Spiderwebs" (first song on the album) places me right back into the over sized seat of business class on an American Airlines jumbo. I became a bit superstitious about this album being on my mp3 player and the supernatural effects it has upon the safe passage of my flight. So, now it has become a standard on my mp3 player - even if I don't listen to it at all during the flight, just having it there brings good luck.

Between about 1am and around 5am, I generally would try to sleep, but I never got much "Quality" sleeptime. Mostly, I channel-surfed the inflight audio selections until it repeated (about a 2 hour frequency), then I might drift into a light nap. I can still hear that hollow whirring kind-of sound of the world rushing by at 500mph. The flight attendants would usually be reading or just chatting.

By 5:00am or so, they'd wake us up for breakfast. I usually just got a bagel and some fruit.
6:30 - begin decent
7:00am - landing and onto the whole customs routine (I'll save that for another post).

Flying business class internationally meant free use of the airline "lounges". My vote for best American Airlines club is Miami, followed by Sao Paulo. All the lounges offer unlimited booze and snacks. The Miami one has a tropical theme, and the one in Sao Paulo became my respite from the chaos after going through customs and the last of Brazil for another trip. The one in JFK is just standard, and it was there I usually felt a little depressed thinking about the long trip ahead and about being away from home for the next few weeks, so I have mixed emotions about that place.

The flight was indeed long (like this post), but the routine made it more bearable. Actually, I miss the adventure of the flights. Each flight meant I was heading to another few weeks of discovering Brazil, and discovering a bit about myself too.

Sao Paulo from window of 777:

Cervejas

2006-10-21T23:17:00.000-04:00

While in Brazil, I was fortunate enough to sample some of the local brews. Well, "sample" might be understating it. Brazilian beer is good. Really good, in fact. The beer is always served at the perfect beer temperature - just to the point when little ice-crystals start floating around in the glass. Refreshing, crisp, and delicious.

My favorite local bar was "Dekave", just around the corner from our house. I would say about once a month or so, when we had had just about enough of work for the week, a good friend and his wife, and Sweetie and I would head over to Dekave for a few "baldes de cerveja" (Buckets or beer). Picture this...a shiny aluminum bucket, filled with ice; and nestled snugglely in the middle of their ice blanket are 4 or 5 cold, cold beers. The waiter pours the beer into your glass with skill to leave the perfect head on top. Drink. Repeat. The waiters have this style there of instinctively knowing when your glass is about 1/3 empty, and as if on autopilot, come over to top of your glass. By the time this has happened a half a dozen times, you have no idea how many bottles of beer you have consumed. Oh, well. When the bill comes, you'll have some idea, if you can still perform long division at that point. We all had a lot of fun at Dekave, and although I don't remember every night, some of my fondest memories from Brazil are of those good times, just letting the hours drift by with just the right mix of friends, conversation, and beer. Sadly, Dekave closed her doors a few months before we left Brazil, but given our friends had left Brazil as well, it wasn't the same anyways.

The beer we drank was mostly Bohemia. It's one of the most popular beers in Brazil. Brazil doesn't seem to have the limitless variety of micro beers you can find here, but you won't be disappointed by their mass produced varieties. All are much better in my opinion than beers like Budweiser, Miller, or Coors. I would say the lowest on my Brazil list would be akin to an Amstel Light in quality. I'm not a beer classifying expert, but I believe they were all lagers. Also, there is no such thing as a "light" beer in Brazil. "Light" and "Dark" only refer to the color, not calorie count.

My list of favorites:
1. Bohemia - best taste, generally slightly more pricey than the rest, but worth it.
2. Antartica - great taste, seemed to have more of a "kick" than the others.
3. Brahma
4. Skol - at first I didn't like this one, but it grew on me. It's one of the cheaper beers too.
5. Honorable mention: Xingu. Xingu ("Shin-goo") is a dark beer, almost sweet in flavor, it's not one to drink if you plan on drink more than a few in a night, but once in a while it hit the spot.

"Imports" in Brazil are not as popular. You could find imported Budweiser at Wal*Mart, but since I won't touch the stuff here, I couldn't imagine drinking it there. Heineken could also be found, and actually for cheaper than you can in the US (there's apparently a Heineken brewery somewhere in Brazil). There was a German beer, Erdinger , that could be found somewhat widespread in town. It was quite expensive compared to the others, but it was really the only imported beer we drank while there. (Side note, I found this beer today at the local liquor store and bought a 6-pack. Funny that a German beer would be the catalyst for this post about Brazil).

Here are some beer commercials from Brazil. TV in general is quite a bit more revealing than the US (see post on Boa Noite, Brazil), but these are tame and should not offend my more sensitive readers.

These are in Portuguese, so if you don't speak it, you may have some trouble getting the jokes. But, the visuals should be enough to give you the idea. The first two are my favorites.

Basic premise of the first one: This guy goes to eye doctor because everything he sees is square (square used as a metaphor for routine, ordinary, plain). After drinking a Skol beer, he begins to see circles everywhere - it's a miracle! The lovely eye doctor's assistant says "no...not again...he's cured".

In the second one, another guy, hearing about the good fortune of his buddy, tries his luck at the eye doctor's, pretending not to see circles. However, the lovely assistant is on vacation, so a different assistant is on duty. Hilarity ensues. At the end, he says to the lovely model, "Dona Carminha, come back from vacation, for the good of science!" Well, maybe it looses something in translation...

Enjoy.

Discovery Atlas: Brazil

2006-10-15T14:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight, the Discovery Channel will be featuring Brazil in their Discovery Atlas series. I'm anxious to see what they cover. From the looks of the website, it appears to focus a on the Amazon, Carnaval, and Rio - the iconic "Brazil". I hope they delve a little deeper..

Here's a link about the series: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/atlas/brazil/brazil.html?clik=visit_site

Bem-vindo

2006-10-09T09:56:00.000-04:00

According to my Statcounter account, it would appear I’ve had my first visitor from Brazil. This person was searching search.blogger.com (the Portuguese version) for “desfile lingerie”, and came across the 11th listing, which was my post on Boa Noite, Brasil. I’m willing to bet my site wasn’t exactly the kind of “information” he was seeking regarding lingerie parades, but he landed here nonetheless. I wonder if he stayed around long enough to read any of my other posts? I’ve had no other hits from Brazil since then, so I guess he didn’t bookmark it.

Meu novo amigo brasileiro, se você retorna aqui, escreva uma nota em “comments” com sua opinião sobre meu blog.

Interestingly, I've been getting about 100 hits per week. Ok, so I'm not exactly waiting around to be bought out by Google, and most of the hits seem to come from me or people looking for lingerie or "Chile presidental parade"; but, still, I'm surprised.

BBQ, Part II

2006-10-07T23:19:00.000-04:00

The last time I posted the picanha had just hit the BBQ, and was cooking nicely. As you can tell from some of the pictures, the BBQ itself is much different than the propane grill type we are accustomed to. It's more similar to a pit-type BBQ.
Behind the grill area, is a wall of bricks with 21 holes each across their face. These holes form a grid-like pattern, and with a couple of adjustable height cross-bars in front, you have the ability to easily adjust the food's location with respect to the heat. This is why there are do many different types of skewers, to accommodate how to best support and position the food. I was better able to control the cooking with this setup, versus my propane grill in NJ.

Now that you know the secret to how the meat was cooked, here are the rest of the details on the picanha. After it chars on both sides a bit, take the meat off the fire and scrape the excess salt off (this is a trick that Pupio, the butcher from the butchershop I mentioned previously, taught me). Then, back to the flame. It took about 45 minutes or so to thoroughly cook a big picanha like this one - but worth every minute of the wait.

The taste of the picanha was really moist, tender, and flavorful. The natural taste of the meat - remember, no fancy sauces here. Can you really tell the difference in taste based on where the beef was from? Absolutely. The meat from Brazil was great, don't get me wrong. Brazil is known for their beef, and I can see why. But, the Argentinian was really special.

So, there you have it. That was a typical Sunday night in Brazil. I usually fired the BBQ up around 4pm, and we'd sit outside and have some quality time by the pool, maybe drinking some Bohemia's or Caipirinhas (look for these in other posts), just soaking it all in.

To bring it all together, here's a quick video.

Click here for FULL SCREEN.

Backyard BBQ

2006-10-03T21:32:00.000-04:00

As I started back on Atkins again this week after putting on the "Re-Patriation 10", I've been eating a lot of beef lately. Beef - they say that Americans eat too much meat...obviously "they" have never been to Brazil. Brazilians have some very strong meat-related traditions, and the preferred style is BBQ. I'm sure in another post I'll deal with "Churrascarias", the Brazilian BBQ restaurants. (You've probably seen ads for ones in Dallas while perusing through the magazine conveniently provided in the seat back in front of you.) In this post, I'm going to guide you through what became a near weekly ritual for us - cooking BBQ in the beautiful BBQ pit on our gorgeous indoor/outdoor back patio.

This photo only shows the BBQ pit area, which was great in itself; I'll have to find some more pictures of the whole patio area. It really was my favorite room in the house. On weekend mornings, I would often just sit out there, relaxing, watching the hummingbirds stick their darty-beaks into the Bird of Paradise plants, and thinking "You don't see that in Jersey". I miss it.

Back to the BBQ routine...

A very popular cut of beef in Brazil is called "picanha" (pee-con-nhya). It's a cut you don't get at the ShopRite here, but, hey, it's all from the same beast. This particular cut comes from somewhere near the back end, I won't get too specific. Follow the link. I used to buy Argentinian beef from this great butcher shop in town. Good quality meats are about 1/3 of the price of here, much more than that if you consider that I got TOP quality beef at unbelievable prices. The piece like the one below probably set me back about R$25 - roughly $10. Imagine.

1. First Step: Buy the essentials. The Meat and coarse salt. And, of course, charcoal made from eucalyptus trees.

2. Fill the BBQ pit with the charcoal, and light. Usually the lighting involved copious amounts of alcohol-gel to get it going. In reality, if I had the patience, I could have used one bottle per year of the stuff vs. the bottle that went up in flames every two weekends.

3. Prepare the meat. The style here is minimalistic - no fancy BBQ sauces, no spicy rubs, or "secret" sauces - just meat and salt. Instructions. Cover meat with salt. Pat. Let stand. (for those with high BP, don't worry, the salt comes off later).

4. Choose the skewer. I had many to pick from: Single skewer, Double Skewer, or the "clam shell". I usually went with the clamshell for picanha - the skewer ones poked holes in the meat and I figured would let the moisture out. In the artsy-shot below, you can see the Bird-of-Paradise plant in the background, and our pool.

5. After clam-shelling, it's onto the pit. That's the picanha in the middle. I usually made some hotdogs for Edge, and a basket of mixed veggies, which you can see on the side.

This is getting to be a long post, and I'll admit that I am a bit frustrated with Bloggers ability to put the pictures where I want them without having to adjust the code. So, for now, I'll leave you full of anxiety as to what comes next for our dear picanha.

Feeling a little older today

2006-09-28T00:24:00.000-04:00

Off the subject of Brazil for a post...

Last night, I attended Back to School Night at Edge's school. He's in 8th grade now, believe it or not for those that know me or him. The school seems nice, familiar. His teachers all seemed friendly and enthusiastic about teaching. The curriculum is more PC than I recall from my days. Now that the PC culture that has developed in the US has made being proud to be American nearly criminal, I just hope he will learn the facts, and not be editorialized to during class.

This year one of his teachers appears to be younger than me. Much younger - probably by a decade or more. I guess that threshold was bound to be passed at some point, and moves me one step closer to being officially "old". This particular teacher said "like", "you know", and "umm, ok" a lot, which I hope isn't reflective of the ~~English~~, oh excuse me, now it's called "Language Arts", education he will be receiving. She also was a bit of an "uptalker", which drives me crazy. Other teachers are as I remember my 8th grade teachers: there's the strict one, the one that makes you record everything from the blackboard into a notebook word-for-word, the wacky-cool one, and the "hot" one. Let's hope there's not the "drop the pencil and lookup the girls skirt" one (you ex-Falcons will remember).

I guess I can go into a whole Brazil tie-in here too and talk about Edge's school in Brazil. Or I could drag this into a trip down memory lane for me and 8th grade. It's late though, and I'm tired - maybe in another post. Sing it Nena.

Copa

2006-09-19T00:15:00.000-04:00

I was fortune enough that my last day in Brazil (13/Jun/2006), was also Brazil's first game of the Copa do Mundo (World Cup). Fortunate in that I at least got to experience one game of the Copa, Brazilian style. Here's how it went...

As you no doubt understand, "futbol" (pronounced "foo-chee-bowl" there)is religion in Brazil. Next to the 85% who claim to be Catholic (this is another interesting thing, 85% Catholic but I don't recall anyone going to church, ever), almighty Futbol is 100%. Each Brazilian male, and a healthy percentage of females, is required by law to have a favorite soccer team, and support them vehemently and to debate until words fail anyone who supports a rival club. Since the weather is nice year-round, so too are the soccer leagues. I never quite figured out how the leagues work - there just seems to be games on TV nearly every night. At the gym I went to, there was either a soccer game or novela playing nightly, but a soccer game of a local or regional team always trumped the novela. Period. Rumor had it that wearing the wrong team's colors into certain sections of the big cities is reason enough to rumble.

Brazil's first game was against Croatia. Croatia's not exactly a soccer powerhouse, but, hey if they made it to at least start the Cup, they had to be decent. About a month before the games, the schedule of work delays and closings appeared. The first game was at 4pm, so the plant closed at 2, just to make sure everyone had enough time to get to the bar, friend's house, or local restaurant where they and their friends/co-workers/family would gather to watch. The more games Brazil plays in, the more time off from work for everyone, so this is additional incentive to cheer for the home team. Not just my company either...every company. Stores lit up Green and Yellow starting about a month before, with as many Copa promotional tie-ins as possible. One sterotype that is proven true in Brazil is their love of the game, and their ability to play it. They recognize that the world recognizes this too, and they love it all the more. The Copa, in a very real sense, is Brazil's national pride on the line.

As game time approached, traffic slowed to a trickle, the streets cleared, and all that could be heard was the murmur of crowds and extermely loud party-favor noisemakers. Some noisemakers were powered by hydraulic cylinders, just to be sure. I met up with about 10 or so co-workers and headed over to a local watering hole. We were lucky to get an upfront seat, close to the ad hoc movie screen and projector setup for the game. Soon after, the beer started flowing, and the party was on. The game wasn't I believe Brazil's best effort, but they won 1-0. The crowd went wild at the goal, like you might in the States if your team scores a 50 yard last-second Hail Mary pass to win the game 24-23. Great stuff. Work and social life mix more than I find they do here, and watching a much anticipated soccer games is no exception. Thanks to my friends in Brazil for indoctrinating me in the ways of the Copa.

Altough I left Brazil the next day, I still followed their games. Of all countries to loose to, they lost to France and were denied getting out of the first round, something never before dreamed possible. Brazil and France are not at odds with each other as say the US and France are, but there is a bit of a rivalry. Argentinians consider themselves like the French of South America, and the Brazil/Argentina rivalry is well-known, therefore by default France is not a favorite of Brazil. When France eventually lost to Italy during the championship game, I felt better.

And so it went, my first and only Copa 2006 game in Brazil. Maybe for Copa 2010, I'll be back.

Boa Noite Brasil

2006-09-09T22:15:00.000-04:00

Watching TV tonight, I ran across "Sabado Gigante" on the Spanish TV station. For those of you not familar with SG, the closest I can describe it is like a Hee Haw in Spanish. The show lasts for hours, and is a mish-mosh of comedy skits, live band performances, and commentary; all the while beautiful latinas in revealing outfits prance around in a seemingly pointless manner. I am willing to bet more than once when you were flicking through the channels one lonely Saturday night and you came across this show and the former caught your attention. The host Don Francisco, a German-Chilean, has apparently been hosting the show for decades. He tapes the show in Miami every week, then flies home to Chile. Nice.

Anyway, why am I bringing this up? SG reminds me of a couple of Brazilian TV shows. These type of variety shows are all the rage in Brasil (of course, Novelas and Soccer rule the airwaves; I'll come back to that another day), two I remember the most are "Boa Noite Brasil" and "SuperPop". Both are shown live, with production values not quite what you would expect from Oprah or Letterman, but more in line with Jerry Springer or Maury. They each come on at about 9 or 10pm, and run about 2 hours. Boa Noite Brasil is hosted by Gilberto Barros, a rather large man, who captivates his audience one day with wacky "Battle of the Sexes" contests, the next a serious topic like recovering from cancer or some other illness, and another day would be a "desfile de moda" - fashion parade. By fashion, most nights meant lingerie or bikini show. Gorgeous models parade on stage in lingerie and high heels while Gilberto and a panel of fashion experts talk in detail about the "fashion". Yea. Right. The fashion. The camera pans up the girl's body slowly, stopping about 1/2 way up and then again at about 3/4 of the way up. This would shock even Richard Bey's audiences.

In this clip, the show's topic is "Electrolysis - A treatment for cellulite". I don't remember seeing this particular show, but I'm willing to bet the girls were on the benches, bastically naked, while Gilberto and crew discussed the pros and cons of electrocuting your ass to remove cellulite. In this clip, one of the models falls off the bench. Remember - the show is live. Gilberto does his best to cover.

The other show, Superpop, I believe considers itself to be the Oprah of Brasil. The hostess is Luciana Gimenez, who's claim to fame prior to hosting the show was sleeping with Mick Jagger and having a baby by him. (As a side note, when the Stones were in Rio this year playing a free concert for 1.5 million of their closest friends, the country was a-flutter with the big question - will Mick go to see Luciana? He didn't.) Luciana does tackle some more serious issues like Oprah might, but still throw in a transexual discussion and, of course, desfiles once or twice a week. My wife liked Superpop, and I guess I did too. As I got better at Portuguese, it started making more sense. This is a commercial for Superpop which runs covers a bit of everything you might expect to see.

Go to Youtube and do a search for "Boa Noite Brasil" or "Superpop" and you'll see what I mean. You don't really need to understand Portuguese to get a feeling for the shows.

Tribute

2006-09-02T17:41:00.000-04:00

A tribute to my favorite TV show, Sao Jose dos Campos style.

Click here for FULL SCREEN.

Special thanks to my wife and Edge for their camera work, and patience, as I scouted locations, obsessed over shots, learned how to get copious amounts of smoke from a cigar, and spent insanely long hours putting this together.

Soldiers Commercial

2006-09-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

I'm doing a little testing here of linking to video. I have some of my own videos I was considering sharing, but I didn't want to publish them to YouTube for the whole world. So, consider this a bit of a test.

But, there is a Brazil tie in here for me. This commercial came out during the '05 Superbowl. The Superbowl is broadcast in Brazil over Spanish ESPN, but without the commericals. Curious about the Superbowl commericals that year, I searched online and found them. This one stood out to me. By then, we had been living in Brazil for about 6 months. When you live outside your country for a while, your native patriotism tends to increase in proportion to the time away. Anyway, this one really hit home for me, and I'll admit, I got "choked up" by it. Somehow, the part when the cooks start clapping really gets me. Even today when I watch it, I always think about sitting in my home office room, in Brazil, watching it for the first time.

Coxinhas

2006-08-28T23:27:00.000-04:00

I was thinking about the food that I miss from Brazil. For example, Brazil has a whole category of food not typically found here, at least not outside of a waiter-carried serving dish from the last wedding you went to. "Salgados". Salgados translates to little salty filled pastries, which is a good description. There are many types, generally all served warm, in all shapes and sizes, with fillings ranging from ground beef, chicken, shimp or heart-of-palm (Brazilians' love heart-of-palm, but I never acquired a taste for it). One kind in particular that I miss is called a "coxinha". A coxinha [pronounced "co-sheen-ya"]is shaped by hand to look like a pear, made of some-sort-of-potato, with shredded chicken inside then deep fried to a golden brown. Not exactly what a sane person would call healthly, but damn tasty nonetheless. The regular size ones are large enough for a between meal snack all by themselves, but there is a mini variety which can be eaten a dozen at a time. The soft potato insides gush out a bit when you bite into one, but that's part of the experience. They are sometimes also stuffed with shrimp or catupiri, Brazilian cream cheese, but I always got the chicken, aka "Coxinha de Frango".

Googled

2006-08-07T12:42:00.000-04:00

Google Earth recently updated the resolution on their coverage of Brazil. This was our house (2nd from left, brown roof):

By the way, I'm back. I guess this means I need to update the title of my blog. By the looks of it, it's been almost exactly 1 year since my last post. I have to admit, a lot has happened since the last post, including a few trips to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, my brother and family visited us in Brazil, as did a good friend a few months later, Macchu Picchu (you may remember Macchu Picchu from grammar school - you know, Peru, Incas, death-defying cliffs), Natal, Foz do Iguaçu, and of course our triumphant(?) return to the States.

A friend of mine over at winebythecolor.blogspot.com has inspired me to at least seriously consider getting back to updating this blog. I just might.

So, if there is anyone out there who actually reads this blog, if you are waiting for the conclusion of our Lagos Andinos story...just wait longer. Maybe I'll post it.

Home Leave

2005-08-13T11:04:00.000-04:00

I've been on a business trip now since last Wednesday (03/Aug). It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting in my hotel room in Providence, RI. I've already been to Montreal, B'burg, Princeton, and Northborough, MA. It's been a long trip, and I'm looking forward to getting back to Brazil!

I was lucky to be able to schedule this business trip for the same weeks as the DCI Championships. (What is DCI? ) I've been going to the championships for about 5 0r 6 years now, so I was happy to keep my streak alive. Next year, they'll be in Madison, WI.

Even though there's been some fun, it's still been a long business trip. I think I may be back to the States in early November, and then again Christmas-time.

Lagos Andinos, Part II

2005-07-30T12:48:00.000-04:00

Day 3: The bus left early on Day 3 for the Valle Nevado ski resort. All 20 or so of the other people on the tour were Brazilians, and a good many of them were from places in the North, like Amazonia, Fortaleza, and Recife. Most had never seen snow, so the point in going to the ski resort was not necessarily to ski - but to see snow.

The resort is about an hour or so outside of the city. It's 3500 meters above sea level and the road to the top is not for the weak-of-stomach. The road has 70 hairpin turns (numbered) and the rest of it is snakey. Of course, there are no guard rails, so every turn is like a scene from some movie (for example, the scene in Motorcycle Diaries where Felix the half-blind Peruvian is driving Che and Mial in his old beat-up truck).

Since we were only going to be at the ski resort for about 3 hours, we decided it wasn't worth the cost to rent gear and buy lift tickets. We met a young guy from Colorado working in the ski rental shop - he said they don't get many Americans there. The resort was well appointed with a variety of hotels and restaurants. The snow seemed excellent for skiing. It was a tough to be so close and not go. I have to admit, though, it was great to feel cold weather again.

That night, we had dinner with our Austrian and Brazilian friends at a New Zealand themed restaurant in Santigao, Chile. (There's a sentance I never thought I'd ever say.) Our friends from SJC happened to be in Santiago, Chile at the same time as us, so we met up at Akarana.

(More pics from Day 3)

This was our last day in Santiago, and we were sad to see it come to an end. We promised ourselves we'd go back. The next day, we flew to Puerto Montt, Chile.

Lagos Andinos, Part I

2005-07-26T19:47:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went on our longest vacation ever. (The stats: 12 days, 11 nights, 4 planes, 3 countries, about 4200 miles, maximum land elevation 3500 meters, and 60 kg of luggage).

We had signed up with a local Travel Agent for their 12-day "Lagos Andinos" tour. The trip included: Santiago, Chile; Cruce de Lagos (Cruise of the Lakes); skiing in Bariloche, Argentina; and a few nights in Buenos Aires. Overall, it was a great trip. I'd post some great pictures to my Flickr account, but our camera was stolen in Bariloche by the maids at the hotel (more on that in a future post). I do have a few pics from our video camera - it takes stills, but not the highest quality. We weren't really expecting to have to share the video cam pics.

Day 1: We departed Sao Paulo in the afternoon, and were in Santiago by early evening. By the time we got settled at the hotel (Crowne Plaza), it was only about 8 or 9, so we still had time to catch dinner. We had a great meal at Como Agua Para Chocolate, and the wine steward gave us a lesson on wines. Chilean wines are really bold and crisp, with great legs (whatever that means). By the time we finished, it was getting late, so we just grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel.

Day 2: We woke to a bit of an overcast day in the city, but not so much as to ruin the fun. On the day's agenda was a city tour in the morning, a stop at a local shopping mall, and a tour of a Chilean vineyard. The city tour was good - well, at least as good as seeing the city from the window of a bus can be. The city seems clean, relatively safe, and the people are generally nice. We did stop once or twice to get out of the bus to stretch our legs and get a closeup of a few sites. One stop was the Presidential Plaza where we were lucky to see the arrival of the President of Chile, and his entourage and military parade. I guess this is one of the more touristy things to see in Santiago as I see some of the same pictures we took posted all over the web. We also saw the city cathedral, which was impressive for sure.

Later in the day, we stopped at a Shopping Mall for lunch. For Edge, this was one of the highlights of the whole trip. There before us was the neon glow of "Burger King", "Taco Bell", and "Dunkin Donuts". Seriously, he almost wept. As far as the fast food places we are oh-so-familiar with in the US, to date we've only seen two of them in Brazil - McDonalds and Pizza Hut. MickeyD's tastes basically the same as back home, but Pizza Hut is different (Brazilian's do not put a lot of tomato sauce on their pizzas). But, Burger King was an elusive dream for Edge, and he happily ate is Whopper. There's rumored to be one somewhere in Sao Paulo, but he's is down 2 votes to 1 on us hazarding a trip to inner-city Sao Paulo to find it. Regardless of what Edge says, we think it's refreshing not to be inundated with all those over-commercialized fast food restaurants here.

Last stop on the tour was the Concha y Toro vineyard. This is one of our favorite wines that we have discovered in Brazil. The tour was interesting and we got some free wine along the way. Unfortunately, July is not the month too see any grapes on the vine as it's the dead of winter in South America now. We spotted the "diablo" of the "Castillo de Diablo" wine fame in the underground dungeon (somewhat tacky, and clearly touristy, but fun).

Finally, after a long day, we went out to a Chilean-themed tourist-friendly restaurant/dance hall. The food here was not the best, but the show was good. It featured costumes and dances from each of the different regions of Chile, including Easter Island (yes, that Easter Island; it's a part of Chile). In the end, we wound up dancing a bit ourselves, and a good time was had by all.

In retrospect, Day 2 was one of the busiest of the whole trip. I posted a few more Pics from Days 1 and 2 on Flickr. We had a great time in Santiago and are planning on going back one day.

Look for more details of our trip in future posts.

First Post

2005-07-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

I guess it's about time that I got into this "blog" thing. Blogging seems like a good vehicle for sharing our Brazilian experiences. As you know, I'm not really much of a writer, so don't expect to see any fancy prose here. Just some thoughts, observations, and a few interesting links. I don't think I'm going to be too strict about keeping on the topic of life in Brazil. You'll just have to wait and see how this evolves.

So, here we go...