Soap
The Last Virgin
Explode Coração (Explode, Heart) the latest
prime-time novela (soap opera) from Globo TV continues
to generate controversy and to raise its share of public.
The feuilleton, which mixes unscrupulous
businessmen, power-hungry beautiful women, Internet lovers,
gypsy families and even a smart and macho transsexual,
was taken to Court.Dara and Júlio Falcão
Mirian Stanescon, a lawyer and gypsy, who
helped novela writer Gloria Perez compose the main
character gypsy Dara and who believes to be Perez’s
inspiring muse, went to Justice to prevent the showing of a
scene in which Dara loses her virginity out of
wedlock. Stanescon, who says she was a virgin when she
married at 32 a cousin of her disputes that contends that
the gypsy tradition bans sex before the marriage.
Initially the justice upheld the argument but
then Globo won an appeal. The polemic episode ended
up being aired on January 3, and thanks to all the
free publicity, soared to 52 points (12 more than the
average rate that the novela was having) on the IBOPE, the
main Brazilian TV-rating system.
Dara, interpreted by Tereza Seiblitz, was
deflowered by businessman Júlio Falcão
(actor Edson Celulari) on a deserted beach, at night. Stanescon says she
approached Perez to try to convince her to scrap the
sex scene. According to the lawyer, the only answer she
got was: “Gosh, gypsy, I am not killing her. All she is
going to do is to screw.”
Prosperity
Accidental tourist, not
If there were some Brazilians left in Brazil the
latest holiday season that’s because there are 160 million
of them and there were not enough planes to take them
all. Only in two weeks in December 150,000 Brazilians
went for a trip outside de country. According to
ABAV (Associação Brasileira de Agentes de Viagem), in
1995, a total of 3.1million people did the same thing.
This last year two in every 100 Brazilians
traveled abroad. Compare this to 1970 when only two in
each 1,000 Brazilians went overseas. The main reason for
this is the strong currency. A trip to New York is
cheaper now than to a domestic location.
With this, Florida’s Disney World, for instance,
has seen an influx from Brazil that’s bigger than from
any other country but Canada and England.
Roaring status
After spending the New Year’s holidays in Angra dos Reis, a
close-to-Rio paradise for the wealthy, Richard
Boechat, better known as Swann, wrote in his social column
in Rio’s daily O Globo: “The sky reminded us
of Vietnam during the Nixon era.” He was referring to the
Francis Coppola’s movie Apocalypse Now to describe
the favorite way of transportation for the
Carioca (from Rio) and Paulista (from São
Paulo) rich people nowadays: the helicopter. Keeping
up with the well-to-do Joneses now means to have the last version
of the Esquilo or Jet Ranger, the favorite models
of choppers. But for some to those belonging to the
so-called Nova Sociedade Emergente (Emergent New Society), NSE
for short, using a helicopter is not only
exhibitionism. It’s a protection against the increasing wave
of kidnapping and an escape from interminable
traffic jams in the big cities.
Drinkable art
Compared to king of silk-screen prints American pop artist
Andy Warhol and called “prince of contemporary pop art”
by some Yankee critics, Miami-based Brazilian-born
Romero Britto, 30, is happening big time. The Swedish
royal family, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former American
presidents Jimmy Carter and George
Bush, all have works by Britto, but now he is going to the
masses. Eleven of his paintings will be shown all over
the world in one billion cans of Pepsi. You can’t
hope for a bigger public. The so-called Pepsi collection has already been
released in Brazil.
Harder to get
Since January 15 Brazilians saw their limit to buy foreign products
by mail lower from $1,000 to $500 and taxes on imported product
were raised to 60%. Once again, in its effort to open Brazil to
foreign markets, the government succumbed to the
domestic industry pressure. This is the third time
the rules change for those willing to import
gadgets. According to the previous rules, products up
to $50 paid no tribute. After that the rate was
40%. The new taxes are applied to any amount and a $100 purchase
for example will cost $160.
Booked for 2000
Ad agency DM9 has surprised the competition by reserving space in
the covers of the main newspapers and magazines for January 1,
2000. To make it a round package, the publicity company has also
booked commercial time with Globo, SBT and Bandeirantes TV
networks for their change-of-millennium schedule. Daily
O Estado de S. Paulo and Globo TV, among others,
have already letters of intention committing themselves to the
DM9 agency. “We cannot run the risk of being
without ad-space in a occasion in which so many
sponsors will be dying to celebrate with big projects
the arrival of Century 21,” said Affonso
Serra, one of the company’s directors.
By the buckets
The ice cream buffet mania started in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande
do Sul) a few summers ago. But now it has spread north to São Paulo
and Rio. The self-service places work the same way as the
so-called restaurants by the kilo. People serve
themselves from a large counter with 30 or more choices of
ice cream and close to 100 different toppings. A pound goes for
around $4 and it’s much cheaper than buying by the scoop. One of the
new places in São Paulo is called Ice Tit Bit.
And the company Zero Grau (Zero
Grade) has opened 12 news ice cream parlors in four months.
Paper chase
The President and Brazilian congressmen don’t have to go to
Rio or Brasília’s outskirts anymore to see how
the poorest people are living. Now they have the homeless on
their own backyard. Close to 200 people built a
favela (shanty town) with 50 shacks just behind
the Supreme Court building, which is across the
street from Palácio do Planalto, the President’s
headquarters. In an ironic homage to President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso the place was named
Favela FHC. The district federal’s government has tried to get rid of
the nuisance, but it can find no place to put
these homeless who survive by collecting waste
paper from the buildings around and selling them for 10¢ a pound.
The dollar rally
It seems that the rule that one real cannot be
more than one dollar is going to be dropped soon.
It’s expected that the real will cross the $1
barrier between May and July. At the start of the
Plano Real in 1994, the parity of the new currency
with the dollar was presented as a guarantee for
the plan’s success. Now, with the real consolidated
and the inflation still in the two digits, it would
be suicidal to continue to maintain the real
stronger than its richer cousin the green back.
Slang
Say the right THUNG
The flirting and mating season is on in Brazil.
With temperatures due to summer and Carnaval at their
highest and inhibition and clothing at their lowest, passions
are blooming. Now is the time to catar, dar um lets,
azarar, morder and rasgar. Only these words for those
who understand Portuguese don’t mean what you’ve
learned they mean. It’s time to learn some X-generation slang
to survive the romance scene.
In Rio:
azarar (literally to bring bad luck) to flirt
dar mole (lit. to give soft) same as
azarar
é o bicho (it’s the beast) that’s the best
morder (to bite) to romance without
commitment
pagar o mico (to pay the monkey) to be
duped, to incur blame
pegar (to pick up) to philander
soltar o freio (to release the brake) to go all the way
In Salvador (Bahia):
Armar (to set up) same as morder
Jogar catiopil to screw
Pé de boi (ox foot) ugly woman
Recife (Pernabuco):
Cevar (to fatten) same as azarar
Tirar casquinha (to scrape the veneer) to heavily pet
In São Paulo:
Catar (to pick up) same as armar
Dar uns fight (to give a fight) screw
Pagar um pau (to pay a stick) same as
azarar
Rasgar (to rip) to seduce
Ralo (drain) heavy petting
TV
Pleem, pleem!
Often on the cutting edge of imagination, the world’s fourth largest TV
network (only behind the American three sisters) Brazil’s Rede Globo has created
a series of anthological micro-films to start and end their commercial breaks.
Twenty four of them were aired in 1995 and 18 news were just
announced for the new year. Globo tells its viewers when it’s time to run to the refrigerator
or to come back fast through the presentation of the company’s logo and a sound
that’s better known as “plim plim”.
The story boards were made by the best Brazilian cartoonists, including
Miguel Paiva, Ique, Borjalo, Agê and
Ziraldo, and different conductors were invited
to make the sound track for the little animated masterpieces. The stories last from
5 to 15 seconds. In one of them there is a group of cowboys in an Old West
saloon rowdily drinking. Suddenly, silence. It’s time to watch TV. They press the
remote control on button and the “plim
plim” sounds.
In another, a man in a bar tries everything to woo a woman. A rose, a pair
of earrings, even a diamond don’t make the trick. But when he offers her a condom,
her eyes get brighter and she extends her hand to take it. That’ s when the “plim
plim” clangs.