The City of Samba, a beautiful video that turns Rio into miniature

Keith Loutit and Jarbas Agnelli did a great job capturing the magic of Rio de Janeiro as if it was a toy city. Very cool.

Watch it full screen!


The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

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Rapper Criolo at the Guardian

From the Guardian:

Since his album Nó na Orelha was released last April to rave reviews, an avalanche of awards has transformed a once-struggling ghetto MC into a modern-day bard for the megacity: Criolo recently played his first gig in New York and will tour Europe and the US later this year.
Caetano Veloso, the legendary Brazilian singer and composer, describes him as "possibly the most important figure on the Brazilian pop scene". "Criolo is a strong presence because he is original," he told the Guardian. "He is far more nuanced than a traditional rapper."

Brazilian rapper Criolo sings the street story of São Paulo

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Journalism comics about favelas in Rio

Augusto Paim, journalist, and Maumau, illustrator, did a great job in the comic-form reportage about the favelas in Rion and the "pacification" process.

'Inside the Favelas' takes a critical look at life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the wake of massive police actions to sweep out drug cartels.

In preparation for hosting the World Soccer Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, Rio launched heavy-handed police raids in 2010 to begin clearing out the slums--or favelas--where the most impoverished citizens live. But how successful is this clean-up, and how does it affect the average resident? This is the first in a two-part comic. The second installment will be published in two weeks and will find Paim and MauMau delving even deeper into the favelas.

Inside the Favelas 1
Inside the Maré

Carnival in Rio in the 1950s

This travelogue by Andre DelaVarre is very cool. We can see that the debauchery was going in full mode in the 1950s! The floats in the samba school parade were primitive compared to what they are today, but they're terribly endearing to look at.



Travel Film Archive - Youtube video of Carnival in Rio, circa 1955

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Os Gêmeos' new show preview

The graffiti twins attack again, this time in Vila Velha (Brazil) in the Museu Vale, with the show "Fermata."

Here's some images of the show being set.

Preparing Fermata - Gêmeos blog

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Coffee table book on Brazil

This looks like a good book to browse through for nostalgia or fetish sake!

For the publisher's blurb:

With evocative photography and fast-paced texts by W magazine editor Armand Limnander, Brazilian Style is a curated tour of the most important symbols of modern and traditional Brazil. A fresh and dynamic mix, capturing the culture of one of the most vibrant nations on earth.

Brazilian Style, by Armand Limnander

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Brazilian cops use typography and graphic design in drug raids

Brazilian cops are so creative! Not sure what the content of Fabio Lopez's talk "Design against crime or how I changed my city with a story of social fiction" was, but this is a cool image of drugs and weapons raids in Brazil, most likely in Rio. We see stuff like that all the time in the media, but seeing the collection all together framed as "design" is a nice clever touch.

The cops generally spell the acronyms of their departments.

Fabio Lopez, "Police Raid Typography"

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Cool graphic compares Brazil states GDP to nations

The Economist made an interesting graphic comparing economic indicators of Brazilian states to nations'. As a whole, results are not very surprising, even though I half expected São Paulo's economy to be bigger than Poland's. And the GDP per person are the most revealing, and should offer a portrait of Brazil that is less bright than the blind middle class want to believe. Rio Grande do Sul GDP per person? Just like that of Gabon.



See bigger graphic and links to similar comparisons with China and India here:
Brazilian equivalents - Which countries match the GDP and population of Brazil's states?


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The Good Blood is back!

Hi guys,
I'm back to blogging after a somewhat short interruption.
Thanks for reading, as always!

Stop-motion animation with 350,000 post-its

Wow, nice stop-motion animation by Casa Darwin using 350,000 post-it notes on the facade of the Galeria Melissa, in São Paulo. 25 animators worked for 5 months with the post-it notes filled with 30 thousand love messages from the public. Melissa is a brand of plastic shoes, by the way.