christmas in brasil

My infinitely gracious friend Nadia invited me up to the mountains to see the Natal Luz (Christmas Lights) in Gramado. This town looks decidedly German, and is, due to the large amount of German settlers in this quasi-alpine region (I say alpine because it was actually COLD here, a fact which Nadia failed to mention...I felt like a right idiot in my havaianas and summer skirt). Clearly the primary industry in Gramado is tourism, as all the perfectly darling streets are lined with souvenir shops, fondue restaurants, and chique boutiques. During the christmas season every avenida, tree, storefront and intersection is decked out with rather North Americanized Christmas decorations.

We went to a posh (not my choice) Italian restaurant that overlooked the main street where the Christmas parade took place. It felt rather like a surreal Winter Disneyland, complete with blowing fake snow that I was hard pressed to believe was not, in fact, real. After the parade we arrived at Nadia's sister's home, an ornately (and, surprisingly, Orientally) decorated apartment in a gated community in the town of Canela. In the centre of this town, located adjacent to Gramado, was the most beautifully illuminated church I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.

The countryside of the serra (mountains) of Rio Grande del Sul reminds me of a cross between the Okanagan and the sea to sky region of BC. Pines and cedars are common, with some palms and banana tress mixed in to remind us that indeed we are in a sub-tropical area. I do admit I felt a little bit homesick for my province for the first time upon viewing the rolling landscape. This feeling was fleeting however as switching from 27 degrees to 10 was definitely a shock to my system!

Feliz Natal! ...will post more after Rio de Janeiro.

Estou esfriando!

Church square, Gramado.

See, it actually gets cold in Brasil...não sabia

Brazilian angels (that were wearing rollerskates!)

Tree lights.

Main avenue, Gramado.

The Gingerbread homem

Igreja, Canela.

the serra.

cachoeira do sul

"Meu nome é Mika, sou Canadense, faz dois meses que estou aqui no Brasil, e sim, eu falo super-bem Português assim."

Cachoiera (waterfalls) is a beautiful town in the interior of Rio Grande del Sul. Small, quaint, and typically Rio Grandense, it is characterized by rolling hills, large fazendas (ranches) and quietly friendly locals tending herds of domestic animals or cultivating rice and soya. I stayed with my friend Tiele, her mom and dad, adjacent to her two grandmothers, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin, and nephew and managed to survive two massive family barbeques. Brazilian families are enormous, and everyone wanted to know everything about me (the most commonly asked questions were, “what are you doing here, a Canadian, in Rio Grande del Sul?”; “how do you speak such good Portuguese after two months? Are you serious?”; and “do they have rice in Canad Fa?”) Note that I say “survive” because churrascos (bbqs) are basically meat roasts, accompanied by fruit and desserts. So I basically ate papaya and doce de leite and ice cream for two days.

Here are some photos...

photoblog um: lugares

Bellatores, Santa Catarina.

Centro, Porto Alegre.

Mathias Velho, Canoas.

Feira do Livro, Porto Alegre.

Gaúcho mural, Porto Alegre.

Magazine store, Porto Alegre.

Sunset, Torres.

Street, near Cidade Baixa, Porto Alegre.

Canta Brasil Sul

À ce moment je suis en train de travailler dans le petit bureau de Canta Brasil, mon organisation culturelle ici en Brésil. Elle est située en Canoas, un banlieue de Porto Alegre. Il y a maintenant cinq personnes dans deux petits salles, ça veut dire un garçon de quatorze ans, trois filles d’entre seize et vingt ans, et la mère, qui est aussi une administratrice, d’une des petites qui danse avec l’équipe de Canta Brasil. C’est assez normal que tout le monde chante, crie et danse autour des salles dans n’importe quel moment pour n’importe quelle raison…En fait, il est bien intéressant d’essayer de faire du design graphique au milieu de cette énergie!

Le mandat de mon organisation est de créer un meilleur atmosphère pour les enfants dans les endroits les plus pauvres de Canoas, au même temps faisant une connaissance positive de la culture ici. C’est surement plus qu’une ONG simple, c’est actuellement un ‘mouvement institutionnel culturel’. Ils ont, comme des associés, des autres ONGs (le plus fortement avec Afroreggae, qui était la partenaire fondatrice de Canta Brasil), des organisations de communications (comme le DCS, une entreprise majeure de la publicité et markéting ici en Porto Alegre), aussi que des citoyens privés qui s’intéressent dans les activités du mouvement. C’est bien intéressant que mon organisation est plus connue dans les cercles “chiques” de Porto Alegre que dans les associations sociales et politiques, mais je trouve que c’est un exemple du classement social qui caractérise la plupart d’interaction sociale au Brésil.

Le semaine passé je suis assisté à la Semaine de Communication, une semaine des ateliers, conférences et débats sûr des topiques diverses concernant la communication, la publicité et le graphisme. C’était vraiment une évènement tellement bien réalisée, et j’ai trouvé qu’il était tellement instructif d’avoir eu une chance de comprendre quelles sont des perspectives particulières du graphisme ici. Il y avait des cérémonies des prix donné de la part du Semaine de Communication, et l’entreprise qui a fait l’annonce suivant (en bas) pour Canta Brasil, a gagné un prix pour le même campagne dans la catégorie des annonces des journaux.



Ça me plait beaucoup d’avoir l’opportunité de contribuer aux projets ici pour Canta Brasil, car je crois qu’ils font quelque chose assez différent en se focalisent de l’importance du talent et de l’éducation pour améliorer des vies des jeunes ici. De plus, mon directeur, Rubielson Medeiros, et une personne vraiment pleine de l’énergie de vivre, qui est évidement une pointe d’inspiration pour tous les gens ici. Je vais additionner des points intéressants dans les prochaines sémaines, puis merci pour lire.

brasil -- duas semanas depois

pensamentos pra as primeras duas semanas...


Dia das Crianças, Porto Alegre

Brazil...strange and beautiful. the first thing you notice is the smell. Meat, shit, sweat. The air is heavy here, at times, thick with moisture and dirt and sound and yes, sex. But the beauty of this country is either brilliant or muted. Brilliant, as in the myriad of fresh fruits and vegetables of the public market, or in the smiles of the children of the church-turned-dance school in the favela, or muted, as in the quiet sadness of the man with his four emaciated, sleeping dogs lying down amid the bustle of my city's central square.

Sometimes it is ugly as well, particularly here in Porto Alegre. On days when the sun fails to break through the clouds, and the gritty reality of decaying concrete and inadequate garbage collection presents itself with unabashed certitude, yes, this city can be called feio, dégeulasse, sad, angry, alive. In stark contrast to the Disneyesque beauty of downtown Belo Horizonte, the centre of this city is a violent mishmash of grace and anger, desire and desperation. Rows of delicate colonial architecture, like the candy-coloured neighbourhoods of children's novels, frame a game pantomime of ordinary workers and beggars hustling to earn their daily Reais.

There are so many products available here, it is overwhelming. Farmacias stock hundreds of boxes of women's hair colour; the chain store Lojas Americanas (literally,"American Stores") carries everything from Barbie dolls to incredibly overpriced home electronics (A basic Sony digital camera goes for more than $800 Réais...the average Brazilian makes less than that a month); and the local supermarket has an entire aisle dedicated solely to cookies. In the streets, hawkers sell indigenous jewelry, sandals, toys, pirated DVDs, brassieres, electronics, gold, barbequed meat, sunglasses, fake rats, dreams. I begin to wonder what development has really brought to this region, supposedly the richest in Brazil.

Here in Rio Grande do Sul the regional symbol of the 'solo gaúcho' is everywhere. The Gaúcho is essentially a cowboy, typically costumed in tall boots, billowed pants, a beret, scarf and often a moustache. He lives in the serra, or plains of the southern and eastern parts of the state, tending cattle and/or farms with his family. Often he can be found in bars that don't close, buying drinks for foreign nationals (ahem) and stamping one booted foot in regional pride. The other symbol indicative of this region, dependably omnipresent, is maté. Often we see people walking about parks with their thermos of hot water and their ceramic pots of maté, drinking this concoction (chimarrão) for two or three hours.

For the next week and a half the Feira do Livro (Book Festival) takes place in Porto Alegre. The feira includes author and academic talks, live musical performances, kiosk upon kiosk of booksellers, and a free film festival. I attended my first Portuguese movie tonight, alone. (That should probably read, I went to my first movie alone, which happened to be in Portuguese.) Titled Achados e Perdidos, it was a well-rendered, passionate and sombre tale of death and love in Rio. When the movie ended, and I exited the theatre, it was raining. Magically, the few street merchants scattered along the Rua das Andradas were selling umbrellas.

the mannequin hunt

So I have a new and strange obsession.

No, it's not tube drawings of what was going on in Miss South Carolina's head, nor is it the brilliance of Canada's own Michael Cera (if you haven't already, go see Superbad right this second)...

it's mannequins.

Montréal storefronts offer a startingly large number of these strange, ill-used plastic creatures. Best viewed at night, they come alive under buzzing fluorescent lighting while the rest of the world meanders drunkenly along.

We've been sucessfully tracking them for the better part of the last month, with decidedly bizarre success.

Behold our recent spoils.

A flock in their natural habitat. Some inter-fighting
must have occurred at an earlier date
(observe amputated hands and missing digits)

Although orphaned by her kin, this amputee
remains gracefully austere

Here, an older specimen quietly accepts her morose fate

These juveniles have engaged in an apparently fatal game
of "spin the baby bottle"

Nothing creepier than baby dolls

Model slash chef mannequins, ready for work

This week we hope to reach the Valhalla of Mannequin-land: the Magasin de Mannequenerie on Sherbrooke. If our next expedition proves fruitious, I will post the results here.

i was hiding! en français!

bonjour les amis...

so, i am currently living in Montréal embroiled in intense training for the Canadian Armed Military Light Army Brigade.

Well, not really, but at times it feels like it! Pour élaborer: I am training for an internship with Cyberjeunes/Alternatives, a Canadian NGO with programmes throughout Asia, Africa, and South America. This training consists of full-time courses in graphic design (le graphisme), website and blog management (formation Web), database management (aka hell), video editing (montage), Portuguese classes, "mobilisation" (various conferences and boot camps related to the the social justice and equitable trade movements), and fundraising for our trip (levée de fonds).

My internship is going to be in Porto Alegre, Brasil:


Look at the little pink hipster building! (photo by Zórzimo Croquezz)

where I will be doing graphic design and public relations for an NGO called Canta Brasil. From my understanding (translated from portuguese --> french --> english) the directors run school programmes in the favelas (slums) to teach kids dance (specifically, ballet) and singing so that they have a better life and don't get involved in crime.

This is going to be fantastic.

Meanwhile, life in Montréal is busy, entertaining, and full of bikes. The last point is incredible considering the following:

1) drivers in Montréal do not signal when turning, even across three lanes of traffic;
2) the bike lanes can be described as sporadic at best, and, being two-way, are often more dangerous than taking your chances in the street with cars;
3) no one wears helmets, uses hand signals, or yields;
4) bike theft is rampant; yet seemingly 75% of montréal homeowners post "PAS DE BICICLETTES" signs on their gates, fences, poles etc. (I've even had servers come out of bars and tell me not to lock my bike to what I thought was just a post on a city street but was apparently private property.)


At any rate...being immersed in French is definitely demanding (all my training and 85% of my interaction each day is French, so that I experience some difficulty speaking English if the first time I say anything in that language occurs after 6pm), but often hysterical. For instance, did you know that the French word for "raccoon" is raton laveur...which literally translates to WASHING RAT?! Last Sunday, delerious after three days of early morning conferences in three languages, none of which were English, I nearly collapsed in a fit of giggles at this discovery. All my French compadres think I'm totally insane, by the way.

Side note: as I write this blog, the instructor is teaching us how Facebook works. Ecccchhhhh...

If it interests y'all, there is a blog that all the stagiaires (interns) have made, to give people an idea of what we have all been up to. Last weekend we participated in the Forum Social Quebeçois at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM)...you can read about it here.

c'est tout pour maintenant...
More photos/writing/french soon!

bisoux.

I'M IN UR COMPUTER

So I've been in internet hiding for a while, apparently...Either that or I am bucking under the pressure of maintaining two Myspace accounts, Facebook, Stalker Facebook, Baby Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo mail, hotmail, Flickr, another blog, and YouTube.

No, really, it's getting nicer in not-so-sunny Vancouver so I am trying to be outside getting more of a UV tan and less of a pixeltan.

However, just dropping by today I decided to share with you my favorite Stupid But Hysterical Mispelled Funny Cat GIFs.

The first one I ever saw was this one:



followed by


Then there is this animated GIF that is worth at least 10 seconds of your ADD time:


I have no idea why these are funny. They just are. Sorry.



(Back soon with something more worthwhile to say)

ode to eurosatire

"Prepare for downcount"


"My other favorite thing, is not going to a job."

wednesday afternoon musicart jam

first off, SCANDINAVIA RULES!!!

look at this really beautiful and fun stop-action drawing animation from Swedish duo Minilogue:



the artwork is done by a swedish illustrator named Kristofer Ström.

he also has a lovely website that details his (really rad and diverse!) work and interviews in many style/art/life magazines and blogs.

------------------------------------------

and...Did I just have an AUDIO ORGASM!?!?

It's Erlend Oye-fronted awesomeness band The Whitest Boy Alive covering Robin S.'s "show me love"...



From the same concert, at Iceland's Airwaves Festival, they also cover "I like to Move it", "I've got the power" and "Music Sounds Better With You"...which, now that we are on the topic, is totally one of my top 10 disco house party anthems of all time...

GENIUS MUCH?!?!

Of course now I have to go home and scan a picture of the lady raving from like '99...Yes. I am going to do it, so don't try and stop me.

More from the Whitest Boy Alive..."golden cage" is my current song obsession, which incidentally has a really really cool video.



Optical illusion instructions

+

norwegian bands together

= bliss.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

what else...oh, !!! isn't from Scandinavia, but they have a new album, and a beautiful new website!


cats and wolves!!! playing music!!! aaaaaa!



check it out here!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

basically, europe rules.

QUOOB.TV

this is a great Italian music/film/art site with new uploads and a great user interface. Basically YouTube for Europeans, but with way better organization and way less videos of skateboarding dogs. What, you don't understand Italian? Neither do I, but I can figure out most of this site due to my knowledge of Spanish and French...heh.

i dare you to not spend way too much time on this site. I DARE YOU!

love and bubbles

ladymika.

whistles

Colbert and Stewart in '08!

I know, I know, it's a pipe dream...Whatever. I still am trying to think of a way to get on Stephen's Fantasy Board. You know, it's like the On Notice board but for fantasies...le sigh.

introducing...Buck 63

Dear Morgan,

I love you.

hope chest/tuesday afternoon design jam!

So for all of you wondering, "what will I get Mika for her wedding present?" here is a current shortlist of, well, decorations and toys.

(Don't worry, y'all have a few years left. I'm just saying...)

First off, I think that I had 3/7ths of an orgasm looking at this staircase:


Or, I sneezed three times in rapid sucession. Which is what, a partial multiple?

And in this nifty loft with this amazing DNA staircase, I will also have (please) the following plates:


Time to get creative at dinner

Mood lighting...


one side of the bulb is real and the other decorative. either way, a bright idea

From the folks at 100per...

A place to sit...


James Design UK

Somewhere to put my shoes...


I'd need, like, maybe three or four of these.

and, some portable green space...


Created by students at Dalhousie University's School of Architecture


If you want to turn a public concrete space into a park, the folks at Rebar in San Francisco have a nifty little instruction article here.

which, incidentally, comes from the "great minds think alike file" as this project bears some resemblance to my friend Clinton's art:


"Dammit, there's never any room to park my bike by the football stadium!"


anyway, like i said, it's a hope chest.

------

hey kids, i added new art websites to my list (at left)...check 'em out yo.