Odd Couple

Odd Couple
Originally uploaded by Kuja.

Me and Teca in "A Polonesa" (Hilario de Gouveia Street, 116, Rio). Why not? look the word "jibble" in the sub-title of this blog...

The Peirogi

The Peirogi
Originally uploaded by Kuja.

The peirogi. Not the Hungarian, but the Polish one.

The Czekoladowy

The Czekoladowy
Originally uploaded by Kuja.

The Souffle Czekoladowy, one of the most delicious deserts I've eaten in all my life. Basically, it is an airy chocolate mousse.

The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party
Originally uploaded by Kuja.

The after-effect posers showing a genuine satisfaction in "A Polonesa". The waiter, standing strategically in the center, was the proof of our repletion. From left to right: Mauricio, Maria, "DCMOUSINHO", Nando and Teca, my wife.

The Gefildt

The Gefildt
Originally uploaded by Kuja.

The primo piatto in a polish restaurant in Rio: a Gefildt Fish. This restaurant, called simply "A Polonesa" (The Polish Girl), is a must. Very impressive experience for a Slavian offspring.

Taskbar of Hell

taskbar
Originally uploaded by Kuja.

Roland Piquepaille disserts about Durl, the new del.icio.us search tool that has the ability to bear things away from their usual places. In my case, I went from Roland Piquepaille to Alexandre B A Villares, non stop. Great displacements, great discoveries. Speaking of which, Napster ATTENS AP2P has discovered my taskbar. Good grief. Scare the hell out of me.

Mister Szantó, Look and See

I've recently seen András Szantó, director of National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, define culture as something "sensitive to surprising the observer". Surprisingly, he said that Internet was not conferred to such quality. I know that Szantó is a defender of the gate keepers' culture, but say that the Internet is incapable of surprising someone is a crime of, well, lese culture. It is not by chance that the word "serendipity", coined by Horace Walpole in the 18th century, has been gaining scale since the Internet advent! Kublai Khan yesterday and Google Suggest today (by the way, thank you LazyWeb! Some days ago, looking for information about WindowBlinds, I almost lost my head trying to find in plain Google the name of that hatful of graphic software called devianART; my memory were insisting in remember just the prefix "dev" and the word "art". After that ordeal, a thing came into my mind: Why does search algorithms are so dependent of complete words if the mind usually works through fragments?). Please, Mr. Szantó, don't blame me for being an iconoclast! I'm just a poor mortal suffering from "loss of forgetfulness". Iconoclast and, thanks god, atheist. Quoting my new hero, Marshall Sahlins, There is a sure, one word solution to all the world's current problems: Atheism. I'm sure that the great American anthropologist would love Mr. Gruff, OBJECTIVE: Christian Ministries' mascot.

[ Ltj Bukem - Unconditional Love ]

Copy Me If You Can

Hey, MPAA, RIAA, FCC: learn with the Easterners! The Chinese language has two different words for copy, as remind us Alexander Stille in his superb "The Future of the Past". Fang Zhipin is closer to what we, Westerners, would call a reproduction, a cheap copy of something. Fu Zhipin, by the other hand, is a very high quality copy, almost perfect, as good as the original. Few people know, for instance, that the Emperor Qin's Terra-cotta Army that travels around the world is one of the second kind. Marshall Sahlins, in "Waiting for Foucault, Still", tells a likewise story, about the shrine of Ise that is unchanged since the 7th century, better said, has been rebuilt with the same ancient instruments and same materials. For us, it is Ise re-created; for them, it is the same old Ise. Under those same criteria, how long Tinturn Abbey would be considered... Tinturn Abbey? Or a last U2 MP3 rip with a super dupe kbps, a Fu Zhipin U2 copy? This is s good patisserie for thought.

[ Tom McRae - Stronger Than Dirt ]

Ukraine Is Not Here

Where is Lech Walesa? Do you remember him? He is now in Kiev, among the demonstrators in Independence Square. Yushchenko and the National Salvation Committee have given the last ultimatum. Even those who desire a Kofi break are not in the dark side of the force. Le Sabot Post-Modern goes beyond the obvious coverings. I know some brothers here are giving a shit to Ukraine. It's a pity. In that case I suggest to them two links: Astronomy of the Brazilian Flag and Landscapes from Brazil, by Alex Uchôa.

[ Bebel Gilberto - Aganju ]

My Favorite Things

Following the steps of Yoz Grahame, I'm posting more on del.icio.us than here. In fact, I'm plenty adicted to that social bookmark engine. Totally hooked.

[ American Music Club - Home ]

BitTerrorism

Reuters had spread a note asserting that "BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all the traffic on the Internet". Somebody made a fact checking about this? Anyway, Suprnova should take the burden of a part of that traffic, because it is offering trackers of manuals like "US Army FM 5 250 Explosives and Demolitions" and "Atomic Bomb - An Introduction to Nuclear Physics". Where those requests are coming from? Iran?

[ The Futureheads - Hounds Of Love ]

Chimp Evolution

Chimp won. Ok. Hail Chimp! No sour grapes. I've rooted, obviously, for Kerry, but I don't mind. Who are us, poor Brazilian liberals, to know what the best is for US? I’ve been following reds and blues opinions, and I've noticed that all of them have been sold a bill of goods. Sure, Hiawatha Bray, from Boston Globe, pushed a little too hard, but I also don't think that US citizens are losing the American Dream. Many liberals are quoting Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" as a way to explain that the defeat were due a moral values confrontation. Hey, the Scopes trial is history now, people! (Strange that the new sally of the creationists is coming from technogeek gurus, as George Gilder, while the best evolutionist rebuttal came from National Geographic Magazine, a supposedly conservative outlet.) The reality is much more complex than red neck counties and latte drinkers strongholds, and the liberals are wrong if they play the Manicheism game. Against all odds, David Brooks, from The New York Times, has shot a principled view: In the first place, there is an immense diversity of opinion within regions, towns and families. Second, the values divide is a complex layering of conflicting views about faith, leadership, individualism, American exceptionalism, suburbia, Wal-Mart, decorum, economic opportunity, natural law, manliness, bourgeois virtues and a zillion other issues. Yes, the reality is definitely not black and white or red and blue.
UPDATE: Jim Lindgren, from The Volokh Conspiracy, remembers that John Scopes based his teachings on George Hunter's "Civic Biology" (1914), a book about eugenics and white genetic superiority. Go figure.

[ Paul Westerberg - Looking Up In Heaven ]

Skype Over Beethoven

Now I'm talking with my friend Mark Abene through Skype. He is in Queens, NY, and I'm in São Paulo, SP. This little piece of VoIP tchotchkes made this miraculous bridge happens, I can tell you. I can hear a chain gang busting into Mark's house carrying several bags of tacos now. They are eating and playing Mark's arcade and talking about the World Series that will be over tonight (David Blumenstein, one of the gang, says that Boston Red Sox will sweep the series from St. Louis Cardinals). Meanwhile the gang play and I try to convince Mark that 2600 Hacker Quarterly still put out good stuff, David calmly watches The West Wing on NBC (I guess he has a crush on C.J., I don't know). I'm also trying to convince them to stop the US political quagmire and go to the ballots next Tuesday. C'mon, boys, GWB and Kerry are in a statistical dead heat and every vote counts now. How can you put up with that stalemate? Do you need a stimulus? Then run and watch the last Eminem's videoclip.

[ Czerkinsky - Natacha ]

First and Only

Christopher Lydon was the first podcaster. Period. What Jon Stewart would think about podcast? And Bill Maher? Plus: An opera about the massacre of Muslims by Bosnian Serbs at Srebrenica, circa 1995. Hum... Does Bill Clinton play sax in it?

[ Brian Wilson - Our Prayer ]

Duelfer & Ellsberg

The Duelfer Report will rampage likewise Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers? The predicament is if Iraq's embargoes worked out or not in inhibiting Sadam's WMD dream. Thus, one must remember that France vetoed US in UN in exchange for a bunch of oil contracts. I guess that WMD was just a talking point, as mentioned by several credible sources (and how credible!) in the new documentary "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War", by Robert Greenwald. Rather than RAND Corporation, the world deserves the Institute without Boundaries (see Massive Change)

[ Plus Minus - She's Got Your Eyes ]

Semiotic Ghosts

In his last review for Technology Review, professor Henry Jenkins had a whim. The Tomorrow That Never Was is the best review about Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow (a new retro-futurist film) and, at the same time, In The Shadow of No Towers, Spiegelman's new graphic novel. And, for the general amusement, professor Jenkins, probably unware, has set off a genuine "when life imitates art" occurrence upon refering to the Zeppelin Hindenburg III. Two times.

[ Gotan Project - Around About Midnight ]

Clampdown!

In one more attempt to grant a technology clampdown, Computer & Communications Industry Association was obstructed from taking part in the meeting on S. 2560, also known as the INDUCE Act, a proposal created for extend the power of copyright laws and debunk innovation. The stakes involved are high, because the law might affect several sort of devices, as VCRs, optical disk recorders, radio receivers, audio devices, IMs, personal computers, iPods (and other personal music players) and online music services. It simply covers every recording, duplication and information technology device today – even the Internet itself.

[ X - Hungry World ]

Mesh in Salvador

ITU TELECOM AMERICAS is to be held from 3-6 October in Salvador, Bahia. I'm almost certain that 3G will be addressed. Yes, because it is supposed to surrogate the DSL and cable broadband networks. For know, the developing countries have been watching the war between GSM and CDMA. But this is the iceberg's tip. In the undercurrents new and exciting technologies start to emerge, as Flash-OFDM and WiMax. Giants as Intel, Nortel and Cisco back the last. But, in my opinion, Wi-Fi mesh networks could be faster deployed in Brazil, instead of WiMax. Time will tell.

[ Guided by Voices - Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud ]

Venezuela From Below

Last weekend I've seen Venezuela From Below, a film by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, and it made my mind boils big time. It is a well-directed documentary about the revolutionary process by which Venezuela is passing through. The film is absolutely educational and begins with a historic overview introduced brilliantly by the philosopher Carlos Lazo. The ascension of Hugo Chavez, Lazo explains, is the result of a bourgeois process that excluded the left-wing parties from the political decisions. The outcome of this exclusion was inevitable: the reclaiming of a progressive constitution. It is staggering to note how Venezuelan people are politicized and how well they are versed in the participatory culture. The people, supported by the army, refuted two coup d'etat and several attempts of sabotage of the country's main economic asset: the oil production, concentrated in the oil company PDVSA, in Puerto La Cruz. By the way, the army is very embedded into the people environment, and Ressler's documentary has captured the proof of this concept, a show where soldiers and other officers play guaracha before a dancing popular audience. The revolutionary spirit has triggered a broad process of grassroots self-organization in vital areas like education (Mission Robinson, Ribas and Sucre), health care (Barrio Adentro) job generation (Vuelvan Caras) and alternative media (El23.net). Venezuela From Below is highly recommended for Brazilian investigative journalists, left-wing politicians and rappers.

[ Señor Coconut – Autobahn ]

Moog and Theremin

Ok. This is completely irresistible not point out to two thought-provoking documentaries. The first is "Moog" (2004), about Bob Moog, inventor of electronic musical instruments, the most famous one named after his name. The second is "Theremin" (1995), about the Russian inventor Leon Theremin, who created the world’s first electronic instrument, and it also bore his name. Needless say that I’m looking very forward to watch them.

[ Kings Of Convenience - Know-How ]