MY BRAZIL I: My São Paulo

Even without knowing the facts about the population and the dimensions of the city, you just need a glance through the window in the plane and everything will be clear. I had the luck to choose São Paulo as my first destination, and the view on the city from above is literally INDESCRIBABLE. An immense surface covered with concrete, intersected with snake-like roads. What is even more beyond words is the view and the feeling if you are landing or taking off at the airport Congonhas. When built the airport was situated outside the city but with the fast growth of Sampa it became an airport among buildings… and São Paulo is the third city in the world in number of buildings, the largest city in Brazil and second largest in Latin America with around 12 millions inhabitants. The heliopads on the top of the buildings are unmissable, since Sampa has the largest helicopter fleet in the world. And opposite of what is commonly presumed, the helicopters are not used because of the crime threat, but because of the traffic.

However, the view from above is not the only thing that would make you conscious about the vastness of São Paulo. It is a city where most of the population lives in the buildings, and where houses have become shops, designer show-rooms, cute craftsman’s spaces etc. There are some beautiful shops in the houses in Vila Madalena (one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Sampa) that seem like museums. Almost every building has a guard and huge fences, so if you want to go in you have to explain to the guard who you are because even the people who live in the building do not have the key to the front door. It is one thing that remained from the 90s, when São Paulo was a very dangerous city to live in. Today it is much safer, but still you have to know where to go and when and which places to avoid, a common practice in almost every big city. For example, the places you should avoid at night and where you should be careful even during the day in São Paulo are, sadly, the most beautiful and historic places, like Praça da Sé, the Pinacoteca, Estação da Luz etc. All around these places there are homeless people, drug addicts, crazy people.. it stinks and it’s dirty. I don’t know the reason, but it must be because the favelas in Sampa are outside the city, so these people just stay there not having the means to go to the outskirts of the city. It is such a pity!

Speaking of the places to see in São Paulo, there is one saying that São Paulo is famous for its ugliness as Rio is for its beauty. My impression did not confirm this. Rio’s beauty is undeniable, but more obvious, more commercialized, more on the outside. Sampa is beautiful on the inside, its beauty is more subtle and it is something you have to discover. São Paulo is beautiful for its vastness, for its diversity, for its offer of places and things to do, especially if you like discovering different restaurants, bars and clubs. In São Paulo there is the largest Japanese community outside Japan, so there are a large number of good quality Japanese restaurants. One thing you have to be very conscious of is that São Paulo is not a cheap city. Everything costs more than anywhere else in Brazil. But it corresponds with how much money people make, because São Paulo is the commercial center of Brazil and obviously people make more money than anywhere else in Brazil. 

Among the most important things worth seeing in Sampa are: Avenida Paulista (the most important landmark street you can see in almost every postcard of the city), Museu de Arte de São Paulo –MASP (a beautiful building on Avenida Paulista, not exception to the rule of gathering gloomy people), the Jardins district (one of the most luxurious districts in the world, Rua Oscar Freire after Fifth Avenue in New York is the most luxurious street in the world), Teatro Municipal de São Paulo (a cake-like building), Edifício Itália (the highest building in São Paulo, the view from the 41^st floor is spectacular, there is free access to the terrace from 16 h, so you don’t have to pay a fortune to sit in the bar).

View from Edificio Italia

Next to Edifício Itália is Edificio Copan (a residential building designed by Oscar Niemeyer), Catedral da Sé (the main cathedral in the central point of the city, sadly, taken over by drug addict, homeless people and lunatics), Pátio do Colégio (the place where the city was founded by the Jesuits, the school where they converted the population to Catholicism), the beautiful shopping centers, Galeria do Rock (an “alternative” shopping center dedicated to rock-culture), Mercado Municipal (the city market, where the thing to try is Pastel de bacalhau), Parque do Ibirapuera (the largest park in the city, where you can see the Museum of Modern Art - MAM - Museu de Arte Moderna, the Auditorium – an Oscar Niemeyer building and Oca – also from Oscar Niemeyer), the street 25 de Março (a street full of cheap low quality goods; the strange thing was that everyone I met asked me if I’d been to this street which I never understood why, being overcrowded, and not very enjoyable to walk through). The new IN place in Sampa is Mocotó, where you will wait for at least an hour to get a table but it’s worth it; you will surely enjoy every bite of the specialties from the Northeast of Brazil they prepare there. Something not to be missed during a visit of Sampa is Maria Brigadeiro, a lovely small place where they prepare brigadeiros, small but delicious sweets. Also not to be missed is Vila Madalena, the district full of small designer shops and graffiti.

My very own favorite place in São Paulo was Livraria Cultura in Conjunto Nacional at Avenida Paulista. It is the largest bookstore in the country. The vast space on three levels with a nice coffee shop is very enjoyable for reading, drinking coffee, meeting people.. There are more than 3 millions books and José Saramago called it a “cathedral of the books; modern, effective and beautiful”. One thing I didn’t like was that of all the Brazilian literature there were only translations of Paulo Coelho’s books and only two books from Jorge Amado (I bought “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands”).

There are two major problems São Paulo is facing. The first one is the pollution. It is a city that developed very fast. It is the impelling force of Brazil, and when people started with the industrialization little attention was given to the protection of the environment. In the state of São Paulo there is one of the most polluted cities in the world – Cubatão, in the 80s called the Valley of Death where the consequences are seen in the life span of the people and the children born with deformities. The tap water in the city of São Paulo is undrinkable, the two largest rivers are deeply polluted, and what they do is pollute even more. They buy water in plastic bottles and in the supermarket they give you a plastic bag for almost every item.

The second problem is the rain. At least, it was the problem I encountered being there in February and March, the period with most rain. The problem in São Paulo is that the whole city is hills and valleys so when it rains (and they are usually rains that last for half an hour to hour but are very intensive) the lower parts of the streets become full with water. This is how the city looks after an intensive rainfall. The positive thing is that it almost never rains in the morning, so you are lucky if you are a morning person, which I am not J

Beside all, the positive things about São Paulo prevail. I enjoyed every minute spent there and wouldn't hesitate to go there again.. if I had the chance I'd go immediately, I don't need to pack, I can find everything in São Paulo!!  

L'esprit de l'escalier

How many times have you had a conversation and after it has ended you found yourself thinking about what you should have said?

How many times someone said something to which you didn't know how to reply, the responses naturally coming to you only 5 minutes too late?

I can remember at least 10 situations when I didn't know what to say at the moment, but 5 minutes (and even hours) after the situation has passed I came up with witty, smart, eloquent, adequate.. answers. But the moment has passed, and those answers could only stay in my mind, whereas I would be making promises to myself that next time I will know better.

The French (oh, the beautiful language!) have a special expression for this. It's "esprit de l'escalier". As Wikipedia explains, the first person to think of this expression was Denis Diderot (philosopher and encyclopedist). During a dinner, someone made a remark to him, leaving him speechless, and of course, the answer came to his mind only after he "reached the end of the stairs", i.e. left the gathering. In his words, "l’homme sensible, comme moi, tout entier à ce qu’on lui objecte, perd la tête et ne se retrouve qu’au bas de l’escalier" ("a sensitive man, such as myself, overwhelmed by the argument levelled against him, becomes confused and can only think clearly again at the bottom of the stairs").

So the "staircase wit" or "l'esprit de l'escalier" is a word worth remembering.

Annoying Facebookers

I long for the time I first started using Facebook, around 2,5 years ago. When I was still not sure if I should switch from Myspace to this new simpler site that didn't offer many of the "make-up" stuff that Myspace had. At first, it didn't seem interesting enough but very soon I learned that the simplicity was exactly what I liked. It was very easy staying in touch with my friends, posting photos I wanted my friends to see and write what's been going on on their walls.

Now it's a completely different story. There has been such a fuss about the privacy on Facebook as if someone is forcing people to write stuff they don't want others to know about them and post photos they don't want others to see. Then, everybody's on Facebook. I hate the fact that most of my relatives are now my Facebook friends. There are simply some things you want to share only with your friends. Then there is the Like button. Instead of writing something we just press "like" and everything's clear. Great way of communication (sarcasm!)!

When I was on Myspace I had all of my information and photos open.. I was writing stuff about me, trying to present myself to the new friends (and I met many new friends on Myspace). Now, on Facebook I try to hide most of the information, and I rarely meet new friends.

Sadly, it's like with most of the things. When a certain circle uses something it's useful, interesting and used for the right reasons. When EVERYONE starts using it, it loses most of its useful features and becomes quite pointless.

Nowadays, I only see people posting YouTube songs.. I really don't get it.. Why would you post every f*cking song you listen to on your Facebook?!?!? I post songs only if they are new and interesting (wanting to share them with more people) or if there is a special meaning to a song so a person would know it's dedicated to them.. or if I want to express how I feel at the moment. Posting 100 songs a day isn't really telling anything. Only that you don't have a smarter thing to do.

Then, there are the people who post what they eat. Why in the world would I like to know if you had pasta for lunch?? I don't know if they are aware of the fact that millions (literally!) of people have pasta and it's not really anything special. I would talk to my friends and I would tell them if I prepared something nice or unusual but posting photos on Facebook.. It's really just food.. and I would leave the food photos to the restaurants.

I wouldn't mention here the girls posting inappropriate photos or bikini photos.. It's really the image they want to present of themselves.

I can only wait for "The Social Network" and use the much appreciated "Hide" button.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

We all, more or less, know (I hope!) the story about Dorian Gray, the young man who sold his soul to the devil to have his eternal youth, and his picture where his old age and sins show. 

I set myself to read this classic, even though I much more prefer reading modern literature, and I downloaded the movie so I would watch it afterwards.

I was surprised of now much I enjoyed the book, and I'm sorry to say it was not the case with the movie (with Colin Firth, who after watching A Single Man really disappointed me).

Oscar Wilde is a real master in sarcasm and irony, truths and philosophies of life, human relations.. which can not be authentically depicted in a movie.

So, I recommend: Do not watch the movie, read the book, it's only 250 pages!

Here are some quotations:

"...I can't explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I should lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I daresay, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one's life." - Basil Hallward to Lord Henry, introducing Dorian Grey for the first time

"Always! That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever. It is a meaningless word, too. The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer." - Lord Henry to Dorian  

"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes." - Lord Henry

"Pleasure is the only thing worth having a theory about. But I am afraid I cannot claim my theory as my own. It belongs to Nature, not to me. Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." - Lord Henry

"When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs." - Lord Henry

"Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity." - Lord Henry

"Like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart."

Wanderlust

Help me I feel like I'm weightless
Floating right out of your hands
And there's only so much I aspire to
Taking one day at a time
And deliverance has many faces
But grace is an aquaintance of mine
Tell me how could it have happened
You know that we're not the marrying kind.
Travel light, don't think twice
We're leaving the shadows behind.
It's given us, yeah
This wonderful wanderlust.
It's given us this wonderful wanderlust
It's given us this wonderful wanderlust
I don't doubt it, I feel it, yeah
Wanderlust Wanderlust
Help me, this waterboys wasted
Falling right out of your sky
And there's nothing that could do without you
Loving the state that I'm in
Between no longer and not yet
On the threshold of some bright affair
The match was struck and I was fired
The embers of a drowning man
Tell me why won't I listen
Or acknowledge that I don't understand
Losing light, a selfish kind
And we're out on the road again.
It's given us, yeah
This wonderful wonderlust...
I don't doubt it, I feel it, yeah
Turn the headlights on full
I want to take in it all
And let it wash over me
The bridge looks so high
From the ledge that we climbed
But we climbed them so that we could be free
Give me no dreams of what the future brings
I need to know when I have gone too far, oh
Repeated lightening strikes
Up and down the spine
They search us out wherever we go
In a world full of lies
That tug at the truth
I'm taking no sides
Now I recognise you.
Wanderlust Wanderlust
It's given us, given us
This wonderful wanderlust
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
Wander---lust
I don't doubt it
No

Home WOW home

Some beautiful ideas of interior design.

* from here

(500) Days of Summer

I am not a fan of romantic comedies. Usually, I put the film on my computer, I watch it and then immediately delete it. It was not the case with (500) Days of Summer. I liked this movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Dechanel. Not in a wow-what-a-great-movie way, but I just thought the manner in which love and relationships were presented were interesting and very close to reality. The notion that it's not a typical romantic comedy is being repeated many times, and although it doesn't succeed to avoid some cliches, it is still refreshing and touchingly narrated story.

My favorite scene of the movie is the representation of how the boy feels after he gets the girl he liked for some time. It's a little bit cheesy, but haven't we all felt like running around and dancing when we've realized we are happy in love?

What i also liked is the retro feel of the whole film. Both Zooey Dechanel's and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's clothes are super-cute.