Carpamus Diem

My beloved Latin professor would be very proud of his student, if he could see me conjugating verbs like I just walked out of the classroom (and not 40+ years later). For those of you who never sat through hours of "amo, amas, amat" and Ovid translations, this title means something like "let's enjoy life here and now." As a matter of fact, my first choice was "My Time Is Now" (as in the documentary about the sambista Paulinho da Viola), which is pretty close, but this way it becomes an invitation to all to enjoy the present time; in other words, the only time we've got.

I'm saying goodbye to all my friends and favorite foods (more or less simultaneously) and I think that both facts account for a spell of tummy ache: too many emotions and an overabundance of calories and caipirinhas...

If you want to take the collective pulse in Brazil, there's no better place than a bar, and, as you may have figured out from the previous paragraph, I've been to quite a few recently. The other night I couldn't help overhearing (no one could, this woman was shouting!) the following outburst against politicians: they're all liars, they're all involved in scandals or implicated in crimes. And she proceeded to name but a few of said public figures whose devious doings have graced print and broadcast news in the past couple of weeks (years?). We all looked in the direction of her table and one of my dinner companions had this comment: I apologize for saying this when we're all eating, but there's only one word to describe Brasília and that is "cesspool." Anyway, you get a general idea of the state of play; according to the newsweekly Veja and some TV commentators I've been listening to, the only (and obvious) democratic way out is through the vote; no one wants to see the Senate and Congress shut the doors, much less a return to military rule, God forbid! I see all this as a sign that the country is improving, becoming "more like the U.S." (if you read the previous post); if only Brazilians take advantage of technology (Twitter comes to mind!) to force transparency and decency down their representatives' collective throats, until they can be removed by ballot in 2010!

Any good news, you may ask? Oh, yeah! My favorite singer is releasing a new CD in May. I'm not supposed to say anything yet, but by all accounts it's a masterpiece! And, a dear friend from California has offered me his gorgeous apartment on the beach in Surfside, FL at a discounted rate...in the same general neighborhood where my daughter lives.

Now, if I can fit all my stuff in my suitcases this weekend, I'll be as happy as a puppy!

Brazil vs. USA

Apart from the latest scandal du jour (someone just blew the whistle on congressmen who receive and distribute free airline tickets to family, friends, lovers, and television personalities for trips within Brazil and vacations abroad, paid for by the Brazilian taxpayers, I kid you not!), what is there to write about when moving anxiety threatens to overwhelm you? Well, I've been reading about the Summit of the Americas and President Obama...aaahhh, at last a breath of fresh air, especially when you compare him with the pathetic representatives of very old-news, very stale, leftist governments in South America. Impossible not to draw comparisons between the U.S. and Brazil, the two giants on these longitudes. And that reminds me of a few prophetic words my brother uttered, only half in jest, about three decades ago: "Brazil," he said, "is the country of the future not because it's going to become like the United States, but because the United States will become like Brazil." You know, I think I'm coming to the realization that he was right. Have you tried customer service in the U.S. lately? Getting pretty close to the way things are in Brazil. Traffic? Well, if you live in Miami, I don't even need to explain! Energy-efficient cars? Biofuels? Sounds awfully like Brazil to me! Bad roads? Well, we're getting there. Is this enough? On the other hand, as my sister-in-law said the other day: life in Brazil is so much better than when she first came here in the 1970s. And, in spite of all kinds of tiptoeing and dancing around by Lula's administration in dealings with Argentina, Bolivia (see the natural gas crisis), and Venezuela, I don't think you have to be a political analyst to feel, I'd say, almost hear, the resentment towards this nation. The thing is, Brazil has everything going for it, and if it doesn't really become "like the U.S.," it's because its leaders are wasting or have wasted, rather, a tremendous chance.

Changing subjects entirely, if you'd like a tip on a good book, I just finished reading "The Riddle of the Sands," by Erskine Childers. I bought it for ten reais!, a Penguin Popular Classics edition, at Livraria da Travessa in Ipanema. It's my favorite bookstore in the entire world, now that I haven't lived in Boston for years and years (and, in any case, I bet my old haunts are all gone, now that we all shop at Amazon.com). I don't know what I'm going to do when bookstores as we knew them disappear from the face of the Earth. Oh, but then I should be gone, too...not to worry, I guess! Back to this small volume: it's got spies and yachting up and down the foggy coasts of northern Germany and Holland one October about a hundred years ago. If you enjoy sailing, you'll love it!

Cheap & Chic Tip: I just visited the Havaianas flagship store in São Paulo. Every style is available and you can create your own, too. I wish they had paid me for this sort-of-advertisement with about ten pairs at least, but they didn't.

(En)Chanted Word

This week it was my intention to write about the soap opera I have going on with the HSBC branch near me here in Rio. I had even picked a good title for the post; I was going to call it "Bank Robbers." But I'll leave this for the end, because fortunately I went to see a documentary about poetry in Brazilian song called "Palavra (En)Cantada," so my mind and emotions are much more happily engaged than in the past few days. This country has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its lyricists, so much so that it's extremely difficult for anyone to pick out her/his favorite verses. Raise the question and you have food for long, animated discussions around any bar table; go to any show, be it Caetano Veloso or Cordão do Fogo Encantado, a hip-hop contest in Lapa or a popular fair in northeastern Brazil, and you'll hear pure poetry. And, of course, everywhere you go, people KNOW the words to dozens, if not hundreds, of songs.

I'm not sure if I really liked Helena Solberg's documentary (I loved her "Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business" years ago), because I think it left out too much and at times it seems to lose its way. But there are some great moments (I particularly enjoyed the interviews with José Miguel Wisnik, BNegão, and Luiz Tatit) and it would be nice if it played in schools here, I think. And I hope it makes it to the U.S. The best thing for me was actually what someone wrote inspired by the film, and I'm going to make an attempt at translating/quoting him: "If Lula is indeed 'my man' as Obama says...I have my doubts. My vote goes to the songwriters of Brazil." Amen!

As far as the bank is concerned, this is what happened: Back in December I tried to get cash out of an ATM there. I got back a receipt saying something to the effect that the machine wasn't able to dispense the cash...but they took the money out of my account anyway. And don't want to give it back to me! This being a bank, and unfortunately a bank in Brazil, the telenovela is likely to go on for another three to four months. I hope it has a happy-ending, for my sake.