It is disheartening to witness Brazil once again discussing
a minimum salary that belongs in a surrealist nightmare.
Even at the equivalent of US$100 per month, the minimum wage
in Brazil is completely inappropriate, as it would be
most anywhere in the world.
By Brazzil Magazine
Trying to add a little more spice to the already spicy Brazilian gossip media, Cravo
e Canela has found a different way of showing celebrities. The Internet-based
magazine—http://www.cravoecanela.net—
mixes the explicitness of Playboy to the coziness of People and presents
famous couples in their intimacy. In mid-October the featured couple was the hottest TV
actress of the day Danielle Winits and her boyfriend Marco Mastronelli. The photo essay
shows dozens of pictures of the pair in ardent kisses and teasing pictures, but nothing
that gets close do hardcore.
Winits told Rio’s daily O Dia that one reason to accept the challenge was to be
with Marco since they live a very busy life: "I had another essay with Marco about
one year ago for my store’s catalogue. This way is much more fun. We rarely find time to
be together. That’s why we accepted the invitation." Danielle also knows that some
people would like to see some more explicit scenes. "This is just a taste of real
life," she explains. "It’s not bashful, but it isn’t vulgar either. They didn’t
go all the way. They did something sensual without being too graphic."
Other sites have also appealed to celebrities. Morango (strawberry.
"Internet’s tastiest site")—http://www.morango.com.br—for
example, has been showing beautiful women in different degrees of undress. For Flávio
Pedreira, the director of Cravo e Canela, the response from the public to the
innovation has been very positive. Says he, "Our idea was to offer something new. For
us a relationship is more important than someone by himself."
The Cravo e Canela (Clove & Cinnamon) pictorial is pure image. There is no
text introducing the couple or accompanying the pictures. The photo essay that started the
series and that appeared just before the one with Daniella and Marco was a little more
daring, showing another actress, Gabriela Duarte with her beau, model Fábio Ghirardelli.
Talking on TV to show hostess Marília Gabriela, Fábio showed enthusiasm about the
experience: "We were at ease. We could be ourselves. We didn’t have to interpret
anything."
Patrícia Drummond, a producer, tries to explain the phenomenon. "What makes the
biggest success on the Internet is voyeurism. To be interesting these essays have to be
spicy. And since the people presented on Cravo e Canela are couples, they are allowed
everything.
For actress Júlia Lemmertz, who had long and very explicit sex scenes with husband
Alexandre Borges in last year’s cult film Um Copo de Cólera (A Glass of Wrath),
the exposure of famous artists to the public was unavoidable. "We have to keep our
distance from the characters. But today the public is curious about everything and the
artists, well, they wish to expose themselves."
Goodbye
Muted Guitar
The sounds he extracted from his guitar were magic and unique. Bossa nova owes a
lot to him. His musical style at a time popular and erudite became a model for musicians
all around the world. Now, his guitar is silent and the composer is not writing anymore.
Baden Powell de Aquino died September 26 from pneumonia, in Rio, at age 63, after a stay
of more than a month at Clínica Sorocaba. He was diabetic and had kidney problems. Much
of his ailments originated in his youth when he started to drink heavily and smoke, two
addictions that followed him throughout life.
He presented his last show recently. It was on August 18 at Belo Horizonte’s (capital
of Minas Gerais’s state) Minas Tênis Clube. His two sons, Phillipe, 20, and Louis-Marcel
Baden Powell, 18, are both musicians. Marcel, according to some accounts, inherited the
father’s talent for the guitar. Phillipe plays the piano. Baden was married for 23 years
to Silvia, but he was living with Elizabeth do Carmo in the last three years. "Our
project is to continue what he taught us," said Marcel. "And what he taught us
was to like "Tico Tico no Fubá" as much as Bach."
Before the end of the year, recording label Trama will release the last work of the
guitarist in which he interprets compositions by Noel Rosa and Dorival Caymmi, among
others. Lembranças, produced by Fernando Faro was recorded in May and also
contains Baden’s compositions like "O Astronauta" with Vinicius de Moraes and
"Falei e Disse" with Paulo César Pinheiro.
Baden Powel was born on August 6, 1937, in Varre-Sai, a little town in the state of Rio
de Janeiro, 220 miles from Rio city, close to the border of Espírito Santo. His father,
Lino de Aquino, a shoemaker, boy scout leader and tuba player in his free time, named the
son after a man he admired: Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (1857-1941), the
British soldier who in 1908 founded de Boy Scouts. The future guitarist was still a
three-month-old baby when he moved to Rio with his father, his mother Adelina and sister
Vera. He lived in poor neighborhoods like Vila Isabel and São Cristóvão, famous for
their talented musicians. Mr. Aquino used to receive at home legendary figures such as
Pixinguinha and Donga.
He was eight, when the father, arranged for Jaime Florence—a renowned composer and
guitarist—to teach Baden the guitar. The lessons went on for seven years, during
which time Baden mastered his instrument and learned to love and play classical pieces. He
would continue his studies later, studying harmony, composition and music theory at Rio’s
Escola Nacional de Música (National Music School). At 10 he got his first public
recognition when he won a guitar competition at Rio’s Rádio Nacional. He became a
professional at 14 with a special permit from the Juvenile Court and started to play in
ballrooms, nightclubs, radio and TV.
The guitarist was 18 when he started to play jazz in Rio’s nightclubs. He would soon
meet and become friends with such bossa nova icons as Tom Jobim and Vinicius de
Moraes. His first hit came in 1956 with "Samba Triste", a tune with lyrics by
Billy Blanco. He would compose another 500 tunes. With Vinicius as lyricist —he met
the poetinha (little poet) in 1962—Baden composed masterpieces like
"Deixa", "Samba em Prelúdio", "Consolação",
"Formosa", "Berimbau", and "Samba da Bênção".
Already the Greatest
He had other worthy partnerships. With Hermínio Bello de Carvalho, he created
"Samba da Partida" and with Paulo César de Carvalho, composed among other
songs, "Refém da Solidão". In 1963 he caused sensation at the Paris’s Olympia
Theater playing Ravel while the public was expecting Carnaval tunes.
In the early sixties, American musician Stan Getz once asked conductor Júlio Medaglia,
"Why doesn’t Baden Powell move to Europe or the United States, where he would become
the world’s greatest guitarist?" To what Medaglia answered, "Because, may be,
he’s already the world’s greatest guitarist." During the ’70s he ended up leaving
Brazil to live in France and Germany. He would only go back to Brazil in 1994 when he
released the CD Baden Powell de Rio a Paris.
Soon after coming from France in 1964, Baden Powell went to live for six months in
Salvador, Bahia. Interested in absorbing as much black popular culture as he could, the
composer became an assiduous frequenter of terreiros de candomblé (Afro-Brazilian
religion temples) and the sound of their instruments like tambours and berimbaus
would deeply influence his work. After 1997 when he became an evangelical he reneged some
of the tunes composed at this time.
French writer Dominique Dreyfus, who wrote Baden Powell’s biography, O Violão Vadio
de Baden Powell (Baden Powell’s Idle Guitar), describes the guitarist as temperamental
and timid, but also sensitive and compassionate. Modest, he never mentioned his
international success. He also talked to her about his drinking problem. He would
sometimes disappear for days, going from one bar to the other, until the family would call
the police and the radio stations to find him. His religious conversion also made him stop
drinking.
What they are saying:
Billy Blanco, partner in "Samba Triste":
"The MPB (Música Popular Brasileira—Brazilian Popular Music) lost its most
important and perfect guitarist. About other talents, we can say that Turíbio Santos, in
erudite music, and Sebastião Tapajós, a Baden disciple, have also reached perfection.
But Baden was absolute, he went well beyond the acquired technique with interminable hours
of study. Baden studied so much that I used to say he was addicted do the guitar. He would
wake up fingering the instrument. He wouldn’t take a break to give relief to his hand in a
warm water pot. They would become hardened. With Baden we cannot use that saying that no
one is irreplaceable."
Singer and composer Carlos Lyra:
"Baden was at Vinicius home when he presented "Samba em Prelúdio", a
tune he had just composed. Vinicius heard and liked it so much that he said that the
composition was from Chopin. Baden denied but Vinicius insisted. At the end, Vinicius
called one of his sisters who knew classical music very well, asked Baden to play and made
de questions: "Isn’t this Chopin?" She says no, Chopin had never written that
music. But Vinicius still unconvinced said, "Chopin didn’t make it because he forgot
it. This song belongs to him." I first met Baden in a bar, in 1955. In 1959, I
recorded my first LP and called him to play with me. We’ve never unglued from each other
since that time. Baden at that time made enough only to pay the rent, he made a living
playing here and there. But it was Vinicius who united us forever saying that Baden, Tom
Jobim and I formed the Holy Trinity. Baden who was Garoto’s heir leaves no heir."
Mário Telles, singer and composer:
"We lost a master. Baden was responsible for the creation of a style and this is
not for any soldier of fortune. It was he who placed African roots in bossa nova. I
hadn’t seen him for 20 years, but we were partners in drinking and making music. I would
say that familiarity with Baden was the reason I never attempted to learn the guitar.
Pelé’s friend cannot play soccer. Baden was the Pelé of the Brazilian guitar."
Júlio Medaglia, conductor and director at Teatro Municipal de São
Paulo, who was Baden’s producer during his Germany period, in the ’70s:
"In his generation, Baden was for sure the greatest guitarist in the world. His
big differential was his right hand agility, a quality that not even the best musicians
from the American jazz have. American jazz players are virtuosi but with the left hand
with which they juggle. Baden united both things. At the same time that he produced
perfect harmonies with the left, he had a vibrant right, full of rhythmic modulations that
made his guitar unique… Unfortunately, his drinking and his inconstancy harmed him a
lot professionally. American musicians are completely crazy but they get an astronomical
efficiency when it’s time to work. Baden conciliated both hands, but he couldn’t
conciliate talent and professionalism. His career could have been much bigger than it was.
Baden was a genius."
Music critic Tárik de Souza wrote:
"The acoustic guitar was for bossa nova what the electric guitar was for
rock. And the Jimi Hendrix of this revolution was called by the scout name of Baden Powell
de Aquino. He was a Garrincha [late famous soccer player] of the strings and with
disconcerting dribbles (and the same ethylic combustion) in genres and styles mesmerized
the world by the combination of technique, speed, dynamism, and emotional allure. Despite
having made a place for himself at bossa nova’s army, in partnership with poet
Vinicius de Moraes, Baden was never bossanovista… He became a star in the main
showrooms in Europe (mainly France and Germany), running in the opposite direction of his
colleagues in the movement (João Gilberto, Luís Bonfá, Sérgio Mendes, Oscar Castro
Neves, Eumir Deodato, Airto Moreira), who preferred the American market.
Discography:
Suíte Afro-consolação – 1998
Baden Powell à Paris – 1996
Live at Montreux Jazz Festival – 22 Juillet 1995/1996
Baden Powell & Filhos – 1995
De Rio à Paris – Décembre 94 – 1994
The Frankfurt Opera Concert – 1975/1992
Live in Switzerland – 1992
Afro-sambas – 1990
Live at the Rio Jazz Club – 1990
Violão em Seresta – 1989
Felicidade – 1983
De Baden para Vinicius – 1981
Nosso Baden – 1980
Maria D’Apparecida et Baden Powell – 1977
Baden Powell Canta Vinicius de Moraes e Paulo César Pinheiro – 1977
Mélancolie: Baden Powell et Cordes – 1976
Tristeza on Guitar – 1976
La Grande Réunion – Baden Powell e Stephane Grappelli – Vol. 2 – 1974
La Grande Réunion – Baden Powell e Stephane Grappelli – 1974
Apaixonado – 1973
Baden Powell Gravado ao Vivo em Paris – 1973
Face au Public: Olympia 1972 – 1972
Samba Triste – 1972
Grandezza on Guitar – 1972
É de Lei – 1972
Le Coeur de Baden Powell – 1971
Le Génie de Baden Powell – 1971
L’art de Baden Powell – 1971
L’âme de Baden Powell – 1971
Estudos – 1971
Solitude on Guitar – 1971
Baden Powell: Carinhoso – 1971
As músicas de Baden Powell e Paulo César Pinheiro – Os Cantores da Lapinha – 1970
Baden Powell Quartet – Vol. 3 – 1970
Baden Powell Quartet – Vol. 2 – 1970
Baden Powell Quartet – Vol. 1 – 1970
Lotus – 1970
Canto on Guitar – 1970
Le Monde Musical de Baden Powell – 1970
Le Monde Musical de Baden Powell – Vol. 2 – 1969
Aquarelles du Brésil – 1968
Baden Powell – Márcia – Os Originais – 1968
Poema on Guitar – 1968
Baden – 1966
Os Afro-sambas de Baden e Vinicius – 1966
Tempo Feliz – 1966
Ao Vivo no Teatro Santa Rosa – 1966
Billy Nencioli et Baden Powell – 1965
Le Monde Musical de Baden Powell – Vol. 1 – 1964
Baden Powell à Vontade – 1963
Baden Powell Swings with Jimmy Pratt – 1963
Um Violão na Madrugada – 1961
Apresentando Baden Powell e Seu Violão – 1959
Society
Top un-secret
For a mere 11 bucks, kidnappers, robbers, all kinds of misfits as well as you and I can
acquire in the streets a CD-Rom containing close to 5 million names of people who have a
telephone in São Paulo. As a bonus you will in addition to the telephone number get
(including all the unlisted ones) the residential address of these people together with
their CPF (Cadastro de Pessoa Física—Physical Person Identification), a number that
like the Social Security number in the US identifies the taxpayer before the IRS.
How hard is it to get one of these precious disks? Street vendors offer them all over
town. Marcelo Rehder, a reporter for Rio’s daily O Globo, bought his own CD-ROM to
write an article denouncing the practice. The information on the disk comes from the
database of Telefônica, the private company responsible for the telephone lines in the
city of São Paulo.
Among those exposed by the indiscreet CD is president Fernando Henrique Cardoso who
owns an apartment in the neighborhood of Higienópolis. The CD reveals that his apartment
is at Rua Maranhão, 1019 – Apt 14 – 14th Floor, besides listing his telephone
number as well as his CPF. The Regional Superintendent of the Federal Revenue Service,
Flávio Del Comuni, as well as the Federal Police chief in São Paulo, Yokio Oshiro, also
have the same information revealed. Celebrities, the rich and the poor, everybody with a
telephone line was exposed.
Telefônica recognizes that it was the victim of sabotage, but it still does not know
whether any of its employees took part in the scheme. The company first learned that their
data had been stolen one year ago when newspapers started publishing classifieds selling
that information.
The finding was immediately denounced to the police. Some people have already been
indicted, but none of the leaders of the ploy was found. The investigations led to the
finding of another CD-ROM containing the Federal Revenue Service data for 3.9 million
companies and 7.6 million individuals. Information that the growing class of kidnappers in
Brazil would kill to have. This information is being sold for $2,000 to $3,500.
Piracy in Brazil is a big-time business. Lacoste shirts, Rolex watches, Nike tennis
shoes, Levi’s jeans, Scotch whiskey, music tapes, CDs, CD-ROMs, nothing is sacred for
counterfeiters. From the beginning of the year until the end of June, the Brazilian police
had already seized 8.7 million counterfeit CDs in the country. Brazil ranks in eighth
place as a music market and in second for piracy, losing only to Russia. In 1999, the
music industry brought in $1 billion selling 90 million copies of CDs and this number
would be much higher if it weren’t for pirated tapes and CDs, which today represent half
of the music market in the country. In 1997, piracy was responsible for only 5% of the CDs
being sold.
According to the APDIF (Associação Protetora dos Direitos Intelectuais
Fonográficos—Association to Protect Phonographic Intellectual Rights), 30 million
pirated CDs were sold in Brazil last year, representing a loss of $73 million in fees not
collected. It was also the APDIF that revealed that the majority of CDs are made in Asia
and enter the country from Bolivia and Paraguay through the frontier in the states of
Paraná and Mato Grosso. The recording companies say that piracy is causing them a loss of
$300 million a year.
Olympics
Cold Medals
Only once before did Brazil win more medals than the 12 conquered during the recent
Sydney Olympic Games. They were six silver medals and six bronze. Invariably, however, the
Brazilian media considered the Sydney campaign a big failure. It happens that Brazilians
were expecting several gold medals. Ten times the Brazilian athletes participated in a
final, but not even once were they able to get the highest position on the podium.
Since there is a slant in favor of gold medals, the country ended up classified in 52nd
place behind Indonesia, Colombia, Mozambique and Cameroon, among others. Without the gold
criterion, the 12 medals Brazil won would place it as number 22 in the Olympic ranking.
In what was a supreme humiliation to the national pride, the Cameroon soccer team,
although playing with only nine players against Brazil’s 11, beat up Brazil sending the
yellow-jersey soccer team, a favorite for a gold medal, back home in the quarter finals.
Other sports in which Brazilians were expecting to win a gold medal: beach volley (male
and female categories), equestrian and two different categories of yachting. Since 1976
when the Olympics happened in Montreal, Canada, Brazil had not failed to bring home at
least a gold medal in every Olympic Game.
When you consider all the facts, though, Sydney wasn’t such a disaster. Compared to the
1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, for example, Brazil could even boast of a better performance
according to the size of its track and field delegation. There were 41 Brazilian athletes
in Atlanta and they won a bronze medal besides being able to have two runners in the final
400 m with hurdles. This time around, the country sent only 18 athletes who were able to
win a silver medal in the 4×100 m relay competition and another three of them made it to
the finals. CBAt (Confederação Brasileira de Atletismo—Brazilian Confederation of
Track and Field) decided to lower the number of participants in an effort to improve the
level of the athletes sent to the games.
Water and Horseback
After winning three medals for swimming in Atlanta and having received the label of
"the best team Brazil has ever assembled", there were high expectations for the
Brazilian swimming team. They had an auspicious start with a bronze medal in the men’s
4×100 free style relay. In Atlanta, four years ago, there were three medals for swimming,
including a silver one for Gustavo Borges in the 200 meters. The results can be considered
even frustrating when, by the swimmers’ own admission, they had all the backing they could
expect during their training.
In equestrian, Brazil again, as in Atlanta, was able to place three competitors in the
finals. Rodrigo Pessoa, Brazil’s brightest star in equestrian and a favorite do win a gold
in Sydney was not helped by Baloubet du Rouet, his horse, who refused to jump three of the
hurdles during the final competition. Still Brazil ended up winning a bronze medal for
team show jumping.
Before losing to Cameroon, the Brazilian male soccer team got close to the goal several
times, but was unable to score against a team short by two men. The defeat precipitated
the fall of head coach Wanderley Luxemburgo, who, in addition to being a disaster heading
the soccer team, is involved in a case of tax evasion in Brazil. As for the women’s beach
volleyball, Brazilians were winning by three points, but lost several chances to defeat
the Australians. The same happened to their male counterparts who lost to the Americans
after having an advantage of three points on the first set.
Why all these defeats? The Brazilian media went to psychologists and other behavior
experts to find an answer. "For some reason we notice an unexplainable block to
conquer a gold medal," psychoanalyst Paulo Sternick told Jornal do Brasil
adding: "This brings a good opportunity for society to reflect about what is
happening in sport, as part of the Brazilian culture. There is the unmistakable impression
that who wins the gold, independently from victories or defeats, are the sports bosses.
The ethics of the Brazilian sport is highly dubious and this reflects in the morale of the
players in action."
For psychologist João Ricardo Cozac, president of the Centro de Estudo e Pesquisa da
Psicologia do Esporte (Center for the Study and Research of Sport Psychology), the two
losses on the beach volley show a "clear fear of success" by the Brazilian
teams. Cozac criticized the methods used to prepare the athletes. Among other practices,
they had to walk on burning coal in order do acquire confidence. "To me, walking on
embers only burns your foot," said Cozac.
The psychological preparation of the Brazilian Olympic athletes was made by Roberto
Shinyashiki, the psychologist from the COB (Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro—Brazilian
Olympic Committee). Shinyashiki is a successful self-help book author. Two of his books, O
Sucesso É Ser Feliz (Success Is to Be Happy) and Sem Medo de Vencer (Without
Fear of Losing) more than once have been in the bestsellers’ list.
Shinyashiki does not take any responsibility for the defeats and thinks there is much
more to the losses than psychological problems. Says he: "It would be completely
irresponsible to justify with a sole factor the result of an Olympic final. The volleyball
players are used to handle decisive games. There is a series of determining factors to
explain the results."
As other critics have pointed, the real problem is that Brazil—with a few
exceptions like men’s soccer and swimming this year —does not invest in sports and
does not have centers to form high performing athletes. The few medals it wins are the
result of individual talent who are able to excel in categories in which there is little
competition. Not even Carlos Arthur Nuzman, COB’s president, is taking any blame for the
defeats. "I don’t want to beg for money or blame anyone, but we need to create
centers of excellence for forming and training athletes in such sports as judo, box,
cycling and track and field."
Nothing new there. For at least 20 years now, after every Olympics, there are
complaints, plans and promises that things this time will change. You can bet we will be
replaying this tune four years from now.
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