The Greatest Cat Power

How could I have missed this video?...It's right up there with the replacements video of the tthrobbing speaker

Salvador - Ivete Sangalo e Bono Vox

Not a big fan of Bono, but it's really cool to see these two big stars having fun with each other.

The Dears - End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story

i love this band....how come they are not hug! The singer is so sexy and this video is so montreal!

Tim Maia-Descobridor Dos Sete Mares

This was My Favorite Song of my trip..The version I liked was by Lulu Santos, but this is, I think, the original. This guy, Tim Maia, Is the Uncle of the Genius Ed Motta. Theres a video of him a few posts back...notice any resemblence?

velvet goldmine - baby's on fire

Christian Bale has never looked better

The The - This is the day

Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

Brega or FoFoo?

Globo de Ouro - 1975 - Elza Soares

Check Out This Amazing Performer...., her voice gives me chills!


Eduardo sent me some music of hers and she also appeared on the 6 cd compilation that Zeca gave me last month in Sao Paulo. I spent the night at The Eagle learning more about this incredible performer from Clecio, the bartender and photographer. You can check out Clesio's photography here.


Elza Soares (Born June 23, 1937) is a Brazilian samba singer. She was married to Brazilian football player Garrincha.

Born and raised in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Soares took part in a singing contest presented by the renowned Brazilian musician Ary Barroso, and received the highest marks. In the late 1950s, Soares spent one year touring Argentina with Mercedes Batista. Soares became popular with her first single "Se Acaso Você Chegasse", on which she introduced the scat à la Louis Armstrong, adding a bit of jazz to samba. She moved to São Paulo, where she performed at theaters and night clubs. Her husky voice became her trademark. After finishing her second LP, A Bossa Negra, Elza went to Chile to represent Brazil in the 1962 Football World Cup. Her outgoing and over-the-edge style fascinated audiences in Brazil and abroad.

In the 1970s, she toured the U.S. and Europe. She has been singing for more than 40 years. In 2000, she was awarded "Best Singer of the Millennium" by the BBC in London, where she performed in a concert with Gal Costa, Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Virgínia Rodrigues. That same year, she played a series of avant-garde concerts directed by José Miguel Wisnik in Rio de Janeiro.

Soares scored a number of charts hits in Brazil throughout her career; some of the bigger hits include: "Se Acaso Você Chegasse" (1960), "Boato" (1961), "Cadeira Vazia" (1961), "Só Danço Samba" (1963), "Mulata Assanhada" (1965) and "Aquarela Brasileira" (1974).

A number of Soares's albums have also been re-released on CD in remastered editions: 1961's A Bossa Negra (containing her major hit of that year, "Boato") and 1972's big band backed Elza Pede Passagem (produced by Dom Salvador) being two of her most acclaimed releases. Elza Pede Passagem produced no major hit singles of the size of previous releases when originally released in Brazil; nevertheless, it is now considered a classic and representative of the "samba-soul" sound of the early 70s.
2002's highly acclaimed album "Do Cóccix Até O Pescoço"
2002's highly acclaimed album "Do Cóccix Até O Pescoço"

In 2002, her Do Cóccix Até O Pescoço album release earned her a Grammy nomination. The album received outstanding reviews in the music press and featured a who's who of Brazilian artists collaborating with her; Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Carlinhos Brown and Jorge Ben Jor to name just a few. The release kickstarted a number of successful tour dates around the world.

In 2004, Soares released her Vivo Feliz album to great acclaim. While not as successful in sales as her previous release, the album carried on the theme of mixing samba and bossa with modern electronic music and effects. The album featured collaborations with groundbreaking artists such as Nando Reis, Fred 04 and Zé Keti.

Noel Rosa

Check out This amazing early video!

I first heard of Noel from a cd that Bill brought me from Brazil in the '90's and his name keeps popping up as I learn more about Brazilian popular music.

Noel de Medeiros Rosa (December 11, 1910 - May 4, 1937) was a Brazilian songwriter, singer, and guitar/banjo player. One of the greatest names in Brazilian popular music, Noel gave a new twist to samba, combining its Afro-Brazilian roots with a more urban, witty language and making it a vehicle for ironic social commentary.

Noel Rosa was born in Rio de Janeiro into a middle-class family of the Vila Isabel neighbourhood. An accident with a forceps at his birth caused the disfigured chin that would haunt him all his short life. He learned to play the bandolim while still a teenager, and soon moved on to the guitar. Although Noel started medicine studies, he gave most of his attention to music and would spend whole nights in bars drinking and playing with other samba musicians. Together with Braguinha and Almirante he formed the musical group "Bando de Tangarás". Soon he started composing sambas, and had his breakthrough with "Com que roupa?", one of the biggest hits of 1931 and the first in a string of memorable compositions.

In the early 1930s Noel Rosa started to show signs of a tuberculosis. He would occasionally leave for treatment on mountain resorts, but always ended up coming back to Rio and the nightlife. In 1934 he married Lindaura Martins, a seventeen-year old neighbour, but that didn't keep him from having affairs with other women. Noel was a heavy smoker, and most of his photographs show him with a cigarette hanging from his lower lip. By the later 1930s his health had seriously deteriorated, and he died in 1937 at the age of 26.

Happy Birthday Sao Paulo

It's not enough that I have been celebrating Friend's Birthdays all month, Now my new favorite City , Sao Paulo, has a birthday so i spent the afternoon in my studio listening to Caetano Veloso's "Sampa" and making drawings......

Carol Channing Birthday Tribute To Van Wifvat!!

Today is my best friend Van's Birthday....this video was recorded at the dawning of the age of aquarious.....perfect!

Carol Channing marries childhood friend, records new song

long Island City

Today I braved the cold and went to long Island city for art and food. I went to the brazilian coffee house for chicken fritters and mandioca cake...delicious but it wasnt the same as being in Sao Paulo! Checked out lisa kirk's installation at PS 1, the first room is infused with a scent, the second is the bomb factory where its made....it reminded me of the scent called direct action from the Rita Tushingham movie "Smashing Time". Tom Burr at Sculpture Center was great, his vignettes , riffs on modernism looked fantastic in that space....lots of record players too...and the smoking/staightjacket was brilliant...downstairs there was a lot of interesting work too but it was kind of hard to know who made what I was looking at the upside down dead cristmas tree and mini brancusi on a slanted coffin was pretty cool!

A Souvenir from Eduardo

I Miss you
And I Miss Pouso too
But I don’t miss the sun burn
I miss the ubachuva rain
that never came
I miss your fear on the cable car at Pão de Açucar
And the famous actress' smile at Oscar’s flying saucer, landed on the coast
I miss Ipanema, and Monica, that cunt
I miss the plans we never made
As I miss the future that has just begun
I miss the Rio sunsets
And the garlic pra caramba chicken.
Guaraná, goiabada, colorful jelly, those I miss all the time
As I miss my serenity sometimes
Do you remember that monster, the one of the beginning of the universe?
I miss him too!
But what I do miss
Is the time that I didn’t miss anything but myself.

Ed Motta - Colombina

This guy is amazing...! It reminds me of riding around sao paulo in eduardo's Blue Peugot!

Happy Birthday Capricorns!

It just dawned on me, I know a ton of Capricorns!

Van
Vince
Rolf
Eduardo
Matt
Chris
...and probably more that I can't think of now!

I started the night at my friend Vince's apt, where he always has something amazing to show me! This time it was some small paintings that he had recently gotten at the flea market, they are all about 4 x 6 inches and painted in the 1930's from a guy who lived in Argentina...really cool, and just begging to be framed and shown in the project room of a major gallery, Holland Cotter will write a glowing review in the Times! Vince and I enjoyed the Amazon chocolates that Eduardo sent to him from Brazil.

Rolf, my older brother, is in Costa Rica right now where he owns a bed and breakfast...I will try and get a picture of him to put up here....he is such a cool guy, we couldn't be more different but he's one of the warmest, most understanding and accepting persons I could ever know....I feel really lucky to be related to this guy. We have had some Great times together....more about him when i get a pic of him..

Van's Birthday is tuesday....we'll probably get together and watch a Carol Channing video or something

Eduardo's birthday was 2 weeks ago today, I think we should a point of spending it Rio every year from now on!

After Vince's I went to a super fun party for Matt Conners and Chris Moukarbel at Chris and Jake's new pad in tribeca...the fireplace was roaring....and the music was hotter! The dj was amazing and had the floor packed with everything from a bizarre remix of bizarre love triangle to Fleetwood Mac....everybody looked great...lots of stlyish Art Fags and beautiful women...it was like being at The Cock with an open bar....I was hoping Jake's bandmate Baby Daddy would be the featured go-go dancer but I arrived late and must have missed him...I missed Anderson Cooper too. It was almost as much fun as being at Torre in Sao Paulo and it made me miss Eduardo....A LOT! He is so much fun to go dancing with! Totally uninhibeted and uncool in a VERY cool way... man I really wish he was here! I met some really interesting people there, hey Noam! and ran into a lot of old friends that I hadn't seen in a while.....Amy Sillman was arriving just as I was leaving, I wish I could have stayed, Amy really lights up a room....she know's so many people and everyone LOVES her....I'm really glad she is doing so well now...she is the first artist I ever traded work with. The piece of hers that I own is above.

KISS - NEW YORK GROOVE 1980

Back in A New York Groove

What am I doing Here?...oh yeah, i live here! I'm starting to think that the thousand dollars American Airlines wanted in order to extend my stay in Brazil through the weekend really wasn't such a bad deal after all...and i could have gone to the Brazilian bear party with Eduardo. Well, baby, you better believe I'm Back! Back in the new york groove. Went out to galleries today, AA Bronson's show at John Connelly was awesome! You can read Holland Cotter's review in The New York Times here. As was the Show of Arte Povera work, "Red Sky" at Luring Augustine. The Margin As Center at Andrea Rosen, featured some really scary Richard Serra pieces and a great Robert Morris plywood corner piece.Marianne Boesky has a Great show of Japanese art up now called The Masked portrait and Printed Matter has a multiple of mine up now in one of their vitrines, painted matchbooks of every David Bowie song that he recorded live. I also had 2 slices of my favorite pizza in nyc at the brick oven place on 23rd and 8th, i truly am back in a New York groove!

Pinacoteca

Back in Nyc and feeling the usual mix of happy to be back in my own environment, and sad to be away from that amazing place. This was easily one of the best trips ever...Eduaro's Lust for life was infectious....I know I've met someone that I will never forget, more importantly, someone who has changed me forever.

And , I have seen some amazing art...here are a few of my favorite things from the pinacoteca in Sao Paulo.

So long Sao Paulo

Yesterday was my last day in the city...Eduardo and I went to Masp, the main art museum downtown, had lunch there, then went to a few other galleries then dinner at a northern Brazilian restaurant with Anna and Frid..a nice way to end the best trip ever. Unforgettable. Thanks you guys

Paraty & Pouso

Weds we took the bus to Parati and met up with Eduardo´s sister Olga, her dughter Ju-Ju and husband Kino. Parati is a beautiful town with baroque churches and houses, a popular vacation spot. We just walked around the town then took Kino´s boat to the tiny beach town of Pouzo where we had a really cool house on the beach for a few days. The beach was beautiful, the water was perfect and Eduardo was suffering from sunburn, (I thought that didn´t happen to Brazilians???) I got to swim but Edu was in too much pain to do much of anything, Olga made some kick-ass kiwi Caiprinhas and Ju-Ju delivered them to us each afternoon around 5...then she made an incredible dinner for us each night of the freshest fish, dorado one night, caught that afternoon, fried calamari the next, straight from the boat...it was heaven, and the water was perfect there. Unfortunately Eduardo was really suffering though so we cut our trip short and returned to Sao Paulo on Saturday.

I really enjoyed traveling with him, we had a little tiff one afternoon, but no big deal. We cleared it up as soon as it appeared, and that was kind of nice. He´s been asking me to stay longer too, which is a pretty nice thing for him to say...I´d love too, but I know the longer I stay, the harder it´s gonna be to leave... I´m loving it here.

Yesterday I went to the Pinacoteca and saw some really cool brazilian art, tomorrow I go to the main Art museum, MASP and some galleries too...Today I just walked around all day going into stores, checking out the amazing buildings and becoming a token Paulista.