Graffiti me, graffiti you

A couple weeks ago someone told me São Paulo wanted to be the graffiti world capital and I was like "WHUT we barely have any", but then I started noticing and it's actually everywhere! I really like discovering things, along with long walks on the beach, travelling and cats, and this is totes my dating site profile. I mean, seriously though, that it's always cool finding out things about the city you live in or about people you know. (Unless it's something like, they're murderers, or something, then it's not pleasant at all). I don't particularly like graffiti, but I guess it's better than a blank wall.




Me and my friends went to Tulipa Ruiz's concert yesterday night, even though we're all swallowed in school work and probs shouldn't be going out. Tulipa is so great! She has a great great singing voice, and is really fun onstage.




After the concert we went to a bar called informally "The Priest's Ass", because it's behind a church haha. I really liked the décor, specially the little beach painting you can see on the pic above! It left us all in a very tranquil mood and less desperate about uni. Unfortunately today I'm back to my desperate state.



Anyway, we might not really be the world capital of graffiti, but some dude decorated his trash picking vehicle with graffiti (yes, no name for it - if you're reading this and it's not familiar to you, good for you, chances are you don't live in a country with great inequality like Brazil! Yay! This is a little cart people with no other means of living go around with trying to collect something from trash that's hopefully worth some bucks) along with a really scary doll sticking out its tongue. He should totes be on Pimp my Ride - Terrible Reality edition.

A pleasant week to you,
V.

How should a person be?

Hello, children. Today's book is called How Should a Person Be?, by Sheila Heti.

I first heard about this book in an interview with Lena Dunham, I think. It had been on my "to read" list ever since, but it was just non-existent in Brazil (I mean, I couldn't find it for sale anywhere). Fortunately, my new internship allows me to download almost all the books in existence bwahahah <3 Anyway, when I first saw the description, I was like, "ew, a self-help book", but then it totes wasn't. Actually, this book does not offer any answers of any kind. To be completely honest, I think I finished reading it feeling more messed up than ever. Thus, the subtitle "a novel from life" fits it quite well.

I had the pleasure of highlighting some of my favourite excerpts from the book, and I hope by reading them you'll feel a deep desire to read the book as well. I personally have never felt so connected to anyone as I did to the main character (whose name I can't remember! Go me!). Which I guess is sad. It reminds me of when my psychologist asked me to list 10 boys I'd like to date and like 7 of them were fictional (like Link from the Legend of Zelda, Goku from Dragonball Z and Kyo from a manga called Fruits Basket). "Hopeless", was what her facial expression said.

You can admire anyone for being themselves. It's hard not to, when everyone's so good at it. But when you think of them all together like that, how can you choose? How can you say, I'd rather be responsible like Misha than irresponsible like Margaux? Responsibility looks so good on Misha, and irresponsibility looks so good on Margaux. How could I know which would look best on me?


I had spent so much time trying to make the play I was writing - and my life, and my self - into an object of beauty. It was exhausting and all that I knew.

my paintings look so good when I'm wearing your special glasses. Thank you.

It has long been known to me that certain objects want you as much as you want them. These are the ones that become important, the objects you hold dear. The others fade from your life entirely. You wanted them, but they did not want you in return.

Standing alone at the bar, I wondered if I could love the boy I noticed at the end of it - the one with curly brown hair, who was like a washed-out, more neutral version of the first boy I loved. When he stepped out into the front steps, I thought, if he has gone out there to smoke, I will love him. But when I got outside, though I could see a cigarette dangling from his lips, I did not love him.

If they can just remember this - It is their everlasting switching that is the dangerous thing, not what they choose - they might discover themselves saved. The problem is the puer ever anticipates loss, disappointment, and suffering - which they foresee at the end of every experience, so they cut themselves off at the beginning, retreating almost at once in order to protect themselves. In this way, they never give themselves to life - living in constant dread of the end. Reason, in this case, has taken too much from life. They must give themselves completely to the experience! One thinks sometimes how much more alive such people would be if they suffered! If they can't be happy, let them at least be unhappy - really, really unhappy for once, and then they might truly become human.

May the Lord have mercy on me for I am a fucking idiot. But I live in a culture of fucking idiots. I cannot be saved if not everyone is saved. if everyone around me talks nothing but shit, how can I hold myself aloof? My fate is not separate from everyone's fate. if one man or woman can stand up and call themselves saved, that means we all are. And I know I'm not, so no one is. 

Recently, Margaux had been trying to reassure me that I had a good brain. My brain had not worried me when I was younger, but over the past year I had become convinced that I did no think as well as other people. No, that was putting it gently - that I didn't know how to think at all. Other people knew how to think, I thought, had opinions on things, a point of view. I did not.

Why are you all reading? I don't understand this reading business when there's so much fucking to be done.

I untangle myself from the sheets and get up and go to the mirror to start my day. I produce a haughty, superior expression to intimidate myself into thinking I'm cool, cooler than I am. I make my eyes as world-weary as possible, like a fashion model's, I think, You're a charlatan. You love everything you were ever given. 

 Hope you have a lovely week! Have you figured out how should a person be?

V. 

Movie Night #5

"He's my high school nemesis" 

The other night I came around this quirky movie from New Zealand. It's with the guy from Flight of the Conchords! If you like that show, you should probably watch Eagle vs. Shark (2007), they have the same kind of humour. In fact, I'd say this movie is a mix of Wes Anderson and Flight of the Conchords. I really like the props they used, all the prints, tapestries, costumes! <3 <3 <3 There are some stop motion bits in the middle. mostly involving apples.




Nancy: What do you parents do?
Shark: They're dead.
Eagle: DEAD. Good one Nancy.
Nancy: I'm sorry hon.
Shark: No problem.
Eagle: She's an orphan. Like Oliver Twist.

Eagle: Lily is like... the best female Fight Man player I've ever seen. And she's a dancer.
Shark: No I'm not.
Eagle: Oh. I thought you said that once.



Eagle: I gotta dump you. My life is just too complicated right now. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I need to be alone. I'm too busy... with the revenge mission and everything. Sorry.



Shark: You know... life is full of habits. but in between the habits, there're some very lovely bits.

green, yellow and blue

I gave my mom some daisies for mother's day, about a month ago. They've died. So I figured, WHY NOT MAKE SOME POT POURRI? I guess I don't really know what that means, so I just tied a bunch of branches together with a cute ribbon. Is this pot pourri?




Anyway, I hung the bouquet in my bathroom, in the hopes it might smell less bad after I poo. Not that my poop smells that bad, it smells like regular poop I guess, but it's always nice having some perfumed dead flowers in the area. Also, I missed the World Cup's opening while doing this. I was so sure it started at 4pm!!! Oh well.

Boogieing down all night long

For the last couple years I had been hearing about this nightclub at são paulo's historic center in an abandoned building, sorta like a squat. The actual thing ended up being way cooler than my expectations! That night they played a type of Colombian music called cumbia, which is very fun to dance to. There were also lots of other rooms playing different music styles, one with a live band even, and some "sitting rooms" with bathtubs as couches!

I hadn't been to a nightclub in 8594379573495 months, indeed I think since visiting N. in Melbourne in July last year. Almost a year! So I danced the night away and hopped on the first train in the morning, really tired from all the dancing. I fell asleed and woke up with some creepy dude touching my thigh asking me to wake him up before we got to Jabaquara station (??). I was like, "dude, wtf, don't do that to people in the metro" and he started chitchatting with me "oh, were you at a party?" and I said (sarcastically)(it was 5am) "no, I was working" and he said "oh, what do you do?" and I refused answering because he was obvz a retard or something, but he thought I was playing a game and his best guess was that I was a transvestite. I was like "YES DUDE, THAT'S WHAT I AM, IT'S MY JOB". He then asked me if he could add me on facebook. I said no and left, thankfully that was my station hahaha. Good times!

To many more weird anecdotes!

A pleasant day to you,

V. 

Contemporary Brazilian Music: part II

And so we move on to my final suggestions of cool music going on down here!

3) Banda Uó



Banda Uó is the crème de la crème of Brazilian tecnobrega (or, in english, technotacky) - they're fun to listen to at parties and such, even though they don't really fit in with my music taste. The problem isn't even the tacky part, it's because of techno. EW.

2) O Terno



O Terno is kind of a mix of 80s rock with samba, or something... I can't quite describe it. Sometimes I don't like the way the singer sounds though, but I still listen to them.

1) Charlie & os Marretas



Charlie & os Marretas is pretty much my fave Brazilian band at the moment, I went to their concert a couple weeks ago and they're just so fun! I know some of the bandmates, in fact I remember once hitting on their keyboard player very hard (I was a bit drunk) and he just ignored me completely at a house party. To my surprise, the day of the concert when the curtains opened I was standing directly in front of him hahah. Good times! They're very funky, and just nice guys in general. Their video is pretty cool too, I've totes learned the dance moves.

A pleasant weekend to ya!
V.

*You can catch the first post here, in case you missed it!

YAYoi Kusama (wow, my titles are so funny).

On Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting Yayoi Kusama's exhibit at the Tomie Ohtake Institute here in São Paulo. It was so fun/crazy seeing what she sees: polka dots everywhere (although she doesn't see that aaaalll the time, just sometimes). I'm not sure if I'd be that bothered if it were me, really! She was also a very hip young lady in her pre-hot-pink-wig-wearing-time, hanging out with Andy Warhol and all. I didn't like her paintings as much as I liked her installations, like the one under here, called "Sea of Dicks", or something. As you can see, I tried to become one with the environment.

But the other installations were pretty cool too.

I don't have that much else to add, except that I had a great time with J., who is visiting (he's been living abroad in the last 4 years). I had a huge fight with him a couple years ago, and we finally made up this year - so, yay! [Insert Oprah-like sentence about the power of love and absolution and friendship.]

Hope you've been having fun too!

V.

Contemporary Brazilian Music: Part I

I've finally started paying attention to contemporary music here in Brazil after I came back from the exchange program. In Europe, it seemed like everyone knew more about Brazilian music than I did (I really only knew the most famous ones and soap operas' soundtracks haha) so I thought it was high time I got to know my culture. I made a little selection of 7 (contemporary) bands that I've been listening to since I started, well, looking for them I guess. From the oldest music videos to the newest ones!

7) Filarmônica de Pasárgada

I like the band's name because it's based on a really good modernist poem called "Vou-me embora para Pasárgada", by Manuel Bandeira. They met at the uni I go to, so I guess I also kinda like them for that haha. They play classical instruments and I think it's really cute <3

6) Trupe Chá de Boldo

Trupe Chá de Boldo has become one of my favourite bands as of late. Their songs are really funny, although I guess you'd have to speak Portuguese to get it haha. At least it sounds good regadless if you speak the language or not! They have a really interesting aesthetic sense, and when I saw them live earlier this year they were super charming - the band is gigantic and they could barely fit the stage.

5) Bárbara Eugenia

This girl sounds a bit more like Tropicalia music, I think! I like her style too, even though I must confess I haven't listened that much to her. Am going to look into her music more :))

4) Garotas Suecas



Garotas Suecas have been around for a really long time. I remember hearing classmates mumbling about their concerts when I was 17, so they've existed at least for 5 years ahah. It's not really my style, but I can appreciate their talent.

Stay tuned for part II!
A pleasant day,
V.