Brazilian Manger Scene

The population of the Brazilian city of Criciuma, in Santa Catarina, wakes up to find an unique Nativity set display in one of their main squares.

How cute is that?

Thank God It's Over

We all love Christmas, right? Those who do celebrate it, I mean, not be exclude anyone. At the same time it brings you a feeling of anxiety and stress, having to run around looking for useless gifts to buy, hoping to please whomever receives them, spending the money we don't have. You need to pick up the house if you have guests or relatives coming over, not to mention the surprise guests, making it look "festive" and in the holiday spirit. You drag a tree in, then drag it out, leaving a mess in it's trail. You get the point.

Today you can take a deep breath and relax as it is OVER! Now let's just worry about New Years.

The Santa-Trash image above was taken by my pal Alex Rasan, in Florianopolis, Brazil, who was so kind to let me post it here on Little-Pumpkins. Talk about Christmas spirit!

French Baguettes & Japanese Sushi

Only in Brazil! My sister sent me this funny picture of a bakery in Rio Bonito, outside of Rio de Janeiro. Besides your everyday freshly baked bread, milk, ice cream and cigarettes they also offer "Japanese sushi"! C'mom, would you EVER get sushi from a place like this? This would definitely not be my first choice of "restaurant" if I got the urge to eat raw fish in Brazil...

Too funny!

More Graffiti Art in Rio

This is just a "miscellaneous" batch of cool graffiti art that I had photographed in Rio recently. These are images taken all over the city - from Copacabana to Gavea, from Urca to Ipanema - and they are just a small example of the variety of amazing work that one can see in Rio de Janeiro nowadays. As I am currently in the Northern Hemisphere I will be reporting from here soon on that subject soon - and you can await some great street art that I've already been capturing in pixels. For more great contemporary street art just give it a click!

CowParade in Rio

The "Cowriocas" are in town! Since 1999 they've been seen from New York to Tokio, passing through Sao Paulo and London, and now they've arrived to greener pastures in Rio de Janeiro. This is the biggest street event ever done in Brazil and will be on display throughout the city from October 03 - November 24. While the cow sculptures remain the same, each city’s artists were challenged by the art from past events, inspired by the cultural influences of their respective cities, and moved by their own interpretation of the cow as an art object. CowParade is not meant to be high art, however. It is first and foremost a public art exhibit that is accessible to everyone.
The lovely cows will be put up for auction individually on December 11 for the highest bidders and anyone with enough cash can park one on their backyard. The proceeds will then be donated to the city's charitable causes. The average bid at the Chicago's auction reached US$25,000 and US$18,000 in NYC. Now let's see how much our charming Cowriocas will fetch!

Rio CowParade website For the official US site click here

Images via UOL

Hang Gliding @ São Conrado Beach - Rio

Last Sunday I went to São Conrado Beach, here in Rio, to check out the famous hang gliding landing spot. This is a very well known destination for this type of extreme sport and in a matter of a half hour you can watch dozens of landings right on the beach, a few feet from you. They actually do land VERY CLOSE to the sunbathers, that can be kind of dangerous in my view, but they seem to be all at peace with it. You can also hire a flight instructor and jump off the tall cliff on the background on a double-flight, smoothly gliding over the gorgeous beach view. Not for me, thanks. There are also many cool parasailers sharing the sky with the gliders and the image of all those colorful giant nylon birds is really amazing. I shot a few very short videos of my time there and posted here for your enjoyment. I did try to edit them together at Youtube but lost my patience after the nth time. On the clips you can see how fast they descend and how close to the people they land on the sand. Very cool!

Miscellaneous Images - Volume One

I've been amassing way too many interesting images lately, as I always have my little Sonny camera on me when I am out & about. I have to say that I've been "rediscovering" Rio de Janeiro - and Brazilian culture in general - after so many years living abroad. Maybe I see the city with a tourist's perspective now or simply just am photo obsessed, not sure. These pictures here are a few (of many) that I keep around looking for the right post to use it in. As the "right post" may not show up anytime soon I decided to group them in "miscellaneous" and publish them anyway. All of these were shot here in Rio, mainly downtown and in Ipanema, and they illustrate a bit of my current experience here.

Sao Conrado Beach @ 7:52 AM Today

I shot this gorgeous picture of hazy Sao Conrado Beach this morning around 7:52 AM. The very peaceful image of an empty beach in the early ours of the day... Enjoy!

Vanessa da Mata @ Canecão

Brazilian singer Vanessa da Mata is one talented & gorgeous woman. I was at Canecão watching her new concert this Sunday night with my "special friend" A and we had a great time. I only knew three or four of her songs before the concert, stuff I hear on the radio or at Galeria Cafe, here in Rio, but her repertoire was flawless. She is 31 years-old, hails from Mato Grosso and her third album "Sim" has just been released. Besides singing she is also an accomplished composer, having penned hits for singers Maria Bethânia and Ana Carolina. Her hits include "Não Me Deixe Só" and "Ai ai ai..." and I often catch myself humming them endlessly. Her current hit in the Brazilian radios is the gorgeous ballad "Boa Sorte/Good Luck", a beautiful partnership with Ben Harper. The song was actually done over a phonecall, with Ben Harpen in Los Angeles and Vanessa in Brazil. She sang it to him on the phone, and with a translation in hand, he composed the melody. Watch their video below.

Street Vendor in Rio - Flower Guy in Ipanema

I had seen this flower vendor above around Nossa Senhora da Paz Square in Ipanema, here in Rio, a couple of times before. The cart always seems to be by itself, as he stands away from it, making it a very poetic tableau of flowers left alone in a city square. But as soon as I pulled out my camera he showed up yelling "Two dollars for pictures". I just laughed it off saying in Portuguese that I was not a gringo and complimented him on his Brazilian flag patriotic touch. He then proceeded to straighten it out to make it look better for the pictures and didn't even mind being in the picture too.

Cool Shop in Rio: Carlos Tufvesson

I had just dinned around Nossa Senhora da Paz Square in Ipanema this past Tuesday night, with my "special friend" A. As I had eaten way more than I should have, we decided to stroll around a bit towards Lagoa, to walk off some extra calories. We were on Rua Nascimento Silva when I spotted this great mural outside of Brazilian fashion designer Carlos Tufvesson's shop/atelier. At first I thought it was some work site that had been graffiti-ed or something like that. But I came to find out that this new mural was commissioned to coincided with the launch of his new Summer 2008 line, that was inspired by graffiti art and artist Roy Lichtenstein. They hired street-artist MENT to show off his talent on the shop walls and the results were breath-taking. The colors really popped as the mural had just been finished the night before and the very bright spot lights didn't let you miss a single hue of acid yellow and hot pink. As I was taking pictures outside, one of the atelier workers asked me where was I from, etc., because Veja Rio magazine was going to be there the next morning for a cover shoot about the mural. He was concerned that images would be "leaked" by the press before the official unveiling but I told him not to worry, as I was just a mere blogger...

Wild in the City - More Fauna in Rio

I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, lived abroad for almost as many years and returned for regular visits from time-to-time to see family and friends. My family always lived in the city but as a kid we went to parks and nature walks quite often, so I am pretty used to seeing animals in their natural habitat. But I must say that I had never seen so many wild fauna in Rio as I have in the past few weeks. Actually I had never seen monkeys or toucans in the wild anywhere. And I did not go looking for them - it just happens to be there. I feel like I am in that Simpson's episode when they come to Rio and wild monkeys are everywhere!

I went to Jardin Botanico, our beautiful 1808 botanical garden, this past Sunday. I just wanted to chill and "commune" with nature and was awed by the animal life I saw in a matter of 90 minutes there. I first spotted the elegant white egret, that can be found at many watering spots in the city. It was feeding in one the small ponds in the garden - spear-fishing I may say. Then the turtles - OK, no big deal. Soon, I spot high up in the trees a couple of toucans (!), with bright yellow chest feathers. I was like "Oh, my God! Toucans!!" This was really a first for me as I didn't even know we had toucans in Rio de Janeiro. Then the piece-de-resistance came along. Suddenly coming down from the trees, there must have been over a dozen monkeys (Capuchin?), attracted by the noise of the people, probably in expectation of food. They were quite playful and not too afraid of us, getting a little too close for my personal comfort. I tried to film them with my Sony camera and it would have come out great if I had remembered that I am supposed to record in the horizontal position only...

If you tilt your head to the left you can watch a little of my monkey adventure. If in Rio, you must go to Jardin Botanico for a break from "Ipanema Life". I cannot guarantee you will see all these animals there but the odds are quite high for what I experienced this weekend.

Brazilian Fashion Matures @ IHT

Great article about the coming-of-age of Brazilian fashion posted at the International Herald Tribune site - written by Robb Young. It states that in the past 10 years Brazilian fashion has matured from splashy visuals to a more subdued approach, such restraint influenced by a changing, less ostentatious consumer. The need to be commercial, appealing to the foreign market and a recent focus on brand-building are also main reasons for the toned-down looks from most fashion houses in past season's runway presentations. The article contains many blurbs by local fashion editors and designers , such as Erika Palomino and Dudu Bertholini of brand Neon.

"Long gone are the days when fashion insiders tried to evoke a Brazilian aesthetic from trite references like Carnival plumage or bikinis on a Copacabana beach. It has taken designers here 10 long years to convince the outside world that there is as much diversity in their native fashion panorama as in the natural one.
But no matter what distinctive quality that might be - piercing prints, primitive handicrafts, strong colors or futuristic silhouettes - the Brazilian design kaleidoscope has often had a wild edge, at least by Paris or New York standards. So why is the one place we could rely on for a fix of exotica falling prey to subtle and even bashful design this season?

Not long ago, critics dismissed much of Brazilian fashion as highly derivative of European brands. No more. A decade since the inception of São Paulo Fashion Week, some Brazilian labels are now confident enough in their own identities to even parody fashion itself. Wild theatrics have given way to tongue-in-cheek flourishes."

Check out the whole article at International Herald Tribune

Carioca Street Vendors

A few images of street vendors I captured this past weekend in a public park in Rio. I love all the colorful packaging, some familiar like Cheetos and Fandangos, and others that I never heard of like "Fofura" (cuteness, chubbiness) or "Torcida" (fans in a sports event). The sign sells hot-dogs and burgers, and the "X-tudo" is a burger with everything on top (cheese, egg, bacon, etc). The X stands for cheese, because in Portuguese the word sounds like the letter X, as we pronounce it "sheez". Cute, huh?