Message Board

Hemingway in Pelourinho

pardal — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:13:16 GMT

My director friend Toby Gough is presenting 4 shows daily at the Edinburgh Festival in August (including "Capoeira Knights: Warriors of Brazil"), and one of the shows is "Hemingway's Havana".

This prompted me to re-read one of Hemingway's best-known short stories, A Clean, Well Lighted Place...reading it for the first time after having been to/lived in Brazil.

I was struck by a couple of similarities between that fictional Havana caf and the barzinhos here in Bahia...

1) Closing hour here tends to be controlled by the last customer, and 2):

"Another brandy," he said, pointing to his glass. The waiter who was in a hurry came over.

"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close now."

I'm talking about "that omission of syntax" employed by stupid people when talking to foreigners. Man! I've heard so much of that in Pelourinho! It's not so prevalent in places where estrangeiros seldom go, but in the past I've been prompted to ask waiters "Licena a, mas vocs falam portugus aqui?! ("Excuse me, but do you speak Portuguese here?!").

Gee, I hope I don't get that when I get to Havana! I don't speak Spanish at all and won't be able to diss stupid waiters in places clean and well-lighted or not!

THE TRAVELLERS' ALMANAC

pardal — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:31:52 GMT

The Travellers' Almanac is a you-write-it, uh..., travellers' almanac, along the lines of Trip Adviser but more conveniently organized and without advertising everywhere.

The name is mine, but the site belongs to a programmer friend -- Allan Andrade -- from here in Salvador (he built the site from scratch).

The idea is that you in the world out there create all the place categories, from country on down to crooked alleyway. Travellers can (or will be able to) recommend restaurants, hotels, whatever suits their fancy.

Why two "l"s in Traveller? That's British orthography rather than American, and to me it conjures up the glory days of travelling, when places were hard to get to and travellers' suitcases and steamer-trunks were emblazoned with bragging-rights stickers showing where the owners had been.

Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps?) Allan's programming skills far exceed his English-language skills, and the site (except for a couple of short entries by me) is written in glaringly-wrong second-language English (including entries by "Aang", who is Allan himself). I'm going to give him a hand with smoothing this out though, and should anybody have ideas on how to improve the site in general, Allan would love to hear them!

The layout and appearance will also be improved, though functionality will be paramount.

And of course, be welcome to add your own back street to the almanac as well, should you wish!

THE TRAVELLERS' ALMANAC

My Computer Doesn't Recognize My Camcorder!

pardal — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:47:00 GMT

I'm wondering if any of you out there have/have had the same frustrating problem I do.

I have a Canon HV20 that downloaded fine into my MacBook.

Now I have a Sony Vaio laptop that won't for the life of it recognize the camcorder! (digital camera is no problem; Macbook gone, unfortunately, sold to a musician friend who begged for it before my last trip to Europe where I'd be in a position to buy another...and like an idiot I bought a Windows machine!)

It's not the firewire (tried several) nor the camera, and strangely enough when I tried it on a friend's new Sony Vaio -- different model -- THAT computer wouldn't recognize it either! It continues to work fine on my old MacBook at its new residence across the street (in the apartment of bass player/composer Luciano Calazans).

The internet is full of people gnashing their teeth about this, and after hours of research I have yet to see anybody solving the problem!

It seems that if you want to use a camcorder, you'd better have a Mac!

Is there anybody out there using Vista or XP with service pack 2 who DOESN'T have this problem? Or better yet...who's had it and fixed it?

Trip for Salvador to Rio

bplotts — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:14:14 GMT

My buddies and I are making the trip from California to Brazil next year (2009) for Carnival. How long is the trip from Rio to Salvador? Also, any recommendations on places to stay in Salvador or Rio.

Thanks

Bahia Blogs from AkuTyger & Leonidus!

pardal — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:25:06 GMT

I've created a blogs page called "Other Voices" (kind of makes you guys sound like shamans or something, doesn't it?) for people with something to say who are saying it.

It's linked from the lower-right-hand corner of my red "contents" square...for now only on the index page but I'll get to adding the links to the other pages as well (I built the site before CSS was popular, alas, and have to do them one-by-one).

So get writing guys, and other "other voices" are welcome as well!

P.S. I put them in alphabetical order...

THIS IS NOT CHICKEN ...LOOK HARDER

sapato — Thur, 01 May 2008 20:33:59 GMT

As much as i enjoy chinese food, Im going to think twice before i go to another chinese restaurant, that is after i read this email that a friend sent me:
This is for you chinese food eaters
A popular asian /chinese restaurant bistro here in Atlanta was closed down this morning after authorities received a tip that the owner was accepting shipments of rats and mice from a vendor to prepare in his dishes.
The owner and his wife were arrested early this morning and charges are not known at this time. After a full search of the kitchen, authorities found packaged rats, mice, kittens. puppies and a large frozen hawk.
The restaurant is a popular gathering spot for local celebrities such as Whitney Houston and husband Bobby Brown, Jermaine Dupree, Janet Jackson,Usher, Monica, Puffy, TI, Ludacris, Lil Jon, Toni Braxton, TLC, and others. The restaurant was located off Peachtree Road and Alpharetta, near North Pointe Mall.

Tattoo Juliana Paes!

pardal — Thur, 01 May 2008 16:27:48 GMT

Juliana Paes is a Brazilian actress, the face (if not the body) of Antarctica, a Brazilian beer.

http://www.tatuagemdaboa.com.br/

The fields are for your name and the name of your noisy buddy (you don't have to mess with the email option).

In Portuguese, this is "esculhambando" (like, ribbing somebody in the sense of giving them a good-natured hard time). Pretty funny if you ask me!

Is Rev. Wright Completely Wrong?

pardal — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:23:00 GMT

A lot of attention is being paid to Rev. Wright and how Barack Obama's association with him will play out in terms of the nomination...

So I watched his National Press Club presentation and man!...something he said there really blew me away!

He was asked about his belief that the U.S. government created the AIDS virus, and he reaffirmed this belief, going on to cite an experiment conducted by the U.S. government in conjunction with the Tuskegee Institute.

In this experiment, conducted between the years 1932 and 1972, a large group of mostly illiterate black men was lied to as to what their medical problem was, treatment was withheld, and the men were left to the ravages of the disease (which included death, after a lot of horrible suffering). Wives contracted the disease, and children were born with it. The data for the experiment was to be collected from the autopsies of the men.

No, we're not talking about Nazi Germany here, we're talking about the enlightened United States of America! And incredibly, the Tuskegee Institute (a black institution) was in on it too!

So although this doesn't buttress Wright's case for government creation of the AIDS virus, one certainly can't make the case that this could never be true simply because the government of the United States would never stoop so abjectly, immorally low!

If nothing else, I can thank the Rev. Wright for educating me in this matter!

Salvador First Hand, 1874

pardal — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:56:35 GMT

An interesting article that I found in the New York Times today...a first-hand account of Salvador written by a correspondent in 1874.

The Transit Expedition
Arrival at Bahia of the Observation Party

CH-CH-CHAT ROOM?

pardal — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:31:12 GMT

As if by magic, a chat room has appeared on this forum (I just noticed it tonight; has anybody noticed it before?)...and it's kind of funny that it's news to me in that I run the site (although the forum is yours, dear friends!).

I use a service to provide this forum, and I imagine that what's happened is that they've thrown the chat room on there to see if it'll stick (like phone companies sometimes do with services like call-waiting).

I'm going to look into it, and I suppose I'll let it sit here for awhile and see if anybody uses it.

Strange...

visiting salvador next week!

nicolas — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:51:34 GMT

ok so me and my girl are visiting salvador de bahia next week... haven't been there in 5 years! all I remember is the hot weather... pelourinho... hasslers... music everywhere... caipirinhas... capoeira... I can't wait.

too bad that american sandwich bar is gone, arg!

Grande Hotel da Barra

Alonzo — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:06:37 GMT

Hi, are there any "kilo" restaurants within walking distance of this hotel? Thanks!

British Englsh Teacher

Redfish — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:30:14 GMT

I'm looking for a British English Teacher (qualified) for a doctor friend who has specified the Britishness. Should be qualified or at least experienced and long term here. Anyone know anyone?

Fat Jim's Flown?

pardal — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:13:34 GMT

LouieLoco! I heard that the Fat Jim's sign was down and that the place was closed up. No more foot-long po' boys and fries with ranch dressing???

What's going on?

Property in NE Brazil

Tulsan — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:13:42 GMT

Hi Guys N Gals, I am planing to visit Salvador and the rest of the NE of Brazil up as far as Fortaleza & Natal. I am sure I will fall in love with the place and have plans to buy a place that i can visit and maybe rent out. There is a lot of speculation about the NE as an emerging market and was hoping to get some views of the locals as to where to invest and what to avoid. Also any information on how much an apartment costs to rent around the area. Where is the nicest area in Brazil`s N.E? Can a person get by with very limited Portuguese. Any advise would be very much appreciated.