Yesterday at the office I climbed up 428 steps, climbed down 420 steps, and did 60 push-ups. Amazing what skipping the elevator (and doing 10 push-ups every little bit) will do.
resenha do filme Orfeu Negro
I continue my afternoon commute practice of watching Brazilian films to learn Portuguese. This classic film is really impressive. (I haven’t seen the remake.) I would recommend it broadly. It sets the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice against the backdrop of a slum in Rio de Janeiro during carnaval. The music, the dancing, and the costumes are beautiful; the story is tragic. (It’s PG, but definitely has adult themes; I wouldn’t watch it with my little kids.)
uma jóia, bela e difícil
Este filme adapta o conto clássico de Orfeu e Euridice a um contexto moderno: o carnaval em uma favela do Rio de Janeiro. Euridice chega do campo para visitar a sua prima no Rio na véspera do carnaval. Conhece a Orfeu – já casado aquele mesmo dia mas parece que isso não pode interromper o amor verdadeiro – e os dois acham uma felicidade breve antes de uma sucessão de eventos trágicos. O retrato do carnaval é maravilhoso: a música, a dança, os trajes, todos fazem um filme tremendamente belo além de emocionalmente trágico.
No filme, as duas mortes resultam tanto de ações bem intencionados mas mal informados (nos casos de Orfeu e de um gerente de estação bondoso) e da raiva cega (no caso da esposa de Orfeu). Nunca se explica a razão pelo qual uma das personagems morre, mas acho que demostra a forma aleatoria que toma a morte na vida às vezes.
Nota sobre o conteudo: O filme não tem sexo, nem a gente nua, nem a violência gráfica. Mas sim faz referência a existencia do sexo e algums temas escuros. Não o olharia com minhas crianças peqeninas.
Mas para todos os outros, eu sim o recomendo. É lindo, é trágico, e abre uma janela de gozo e morte nas favelas de Brasil. “A felicidade do pobre parece a grande ilusão do carnaval. A gente trabalha o ano enteiro…”*
* A penúltima canção do filme.
comparing free internet translations
Sometimes when I am composing emails in Portuguese, I find it easier to use an on-line translator and then fix the translation. I did a comparison across three free translators: the Dictionary.com Translator, Yahoo! Babel Fish, and the Google Translator. Then I went through them with my Portuguese teacher (from São Paulo). The results are below.
Two take-aways: Google was the best by far (surprise, surprise), but none was perfect and so revising the translation is still essential.
The challenge:
Hi friend,
I’m filling in the blanks on the agenda for the conference. Can you tell me the names / positions of the two people you mentioned that would be coming from Mexico?
Thanks so much,
Magic Man
three player rules for Taboo
Warning: This does use a calculator (like the one on your cell phone).
My older brother was visiting last night, and after he and I returned from the movies (Aa Dekhen Zara – not horrible, not super), he, my wife, and I sat down to play Taboo. We devised this form of play, which was very fun.
gracefully impersonating Einstein
In 1951, while he [Albert Schweitzer] was traveling by train in America, two ladies approached his compartment and diffidently asked, “Have we the honor of speaking to Professor Einstein?” “No, unfortunately not,” he replied. “However, he is a very old friend of mine – would you like me to give you his autograph?” And he wrote, “Albert Einstein, by way of his friend Albert Schweitzer.”
The next year Schweitzer won the Nobel Peace Prize. From Human Goodness, by Yi-Fu Tuan, p51.
the non-consensus on Moyo’s new book Dead Aid
The Complete Review – which is the Rotten Tomatoes for lucky books – brings together snippets of major reviews on Dambisa Moyo’s critique of current foreign aid, Dead Aid, together with links to the reviews.
I get very tired of overstaters. So the Economist review turned me off:
“Dead Aid does not move the debate along much. Yes, she has joined the chorus of disapproval — and that in itself might surprise a few diehards who think that Africans should just be grateful for the aid and shut up. But her arguments are scarcely original and her plodding prose makes her the least stylish of the critics. Moreover, she overstates her case, almost to the point of caricature.”
cell phones help the poor in Niger, India, and … DC
I’ve been impressed by how cell phones have helped poor farmers in Niger find the best prices to sell their grain and helped poor fishers in India to find the best markets for their fish. So I was interested to see how the homeless of Washington, DC, are using cell phones to help their situation:
“Having a phone isn’t even a privilege anymore — it’s a necessity,” said Rommel McBride, 50, who spent about six years on the streets before recently being placed in a city housing program. He has had a mobile phone for a year. “A cellphone is the only way you can call to keep up with your food stamps, your housing application, your job. When you’re living in a shelter or sleeping on the streets, it’s your last line of communication with the world.”
And here is one story about how a cell phone transformed employment opportunities for a homeless guy:
Chris got an entry-level job at Verizon Center last year. He tried to get back on his feet, but each time, he missed calls from his boss, who often dialed a soup kitchen or shelter switchboard. Eventually, he was labeled unreliable and lost the job.
This time, he got a pay-as-you-go cellphone and gave his boss the number. “I live up near the Capitol — give me a call anytime if you need extra hands,” he told his employer, being vague about where he bedded down each night.
He received numerous calls to come in early or to work an extra shift. After less than a year on the job, he was promoted. “No one there knows I’m homeless,” he said. “I would never have been able to do this without the cellphone.”
Just as with conditional cash transfers which were proven in Mexico and now are being tried in New York, some of the same solutions work all over.
amazon goes ethnocentric
Amazon has stopped accepted book reviews in Spanish, even though they sell all kinds of books in Spanish. Now THAT makes sense!
Update: When I queried why the change in policy (i’ve published many reviews in Spanish there in the past), they explained, “Due to the competitive nature of our business, our policy is not to give out information on the inner workings of our company’s features.” So they have a secret reason for their ethnocentrism. Nice.
you haven’t seen this little romantic comedy gem but you’ll enjoy it
My wife and I recently rented I Could Never Be Your Woman, and I really liked it (so much that I’m writing a review of a movie in English, not my norm). My thoughts:
I don’t know why this went straight to DVD, but I really enjoyed this silly little romantic comedy about a twentysomething television actor who falls in love with a fortysomething producer. Michelle Pfeiffer (the fortysomething), continues to look absolutely stunning at age 50 (in real life). Paul Rudd is very funny and has a dance routine that rivals Napoleon Dynamite‘s. As a conoisseur of Jon Lovitz, I know he is most hilarious in appropriate doses: this movie gets it just right! Fred Willard plays Michelle Pfeiffer’s boss who is obsessed with youth jargon; he isn’t at his A Mighty Wind (Wha’ happened?) best but still does nice work. And the icing on the cake is not one but two cameos from Henry Winkler, with one Fonzie “he-e-e-ey” and one shot of him reading Sartre. (I love Henry Winkler.)
I gave it an 8 / 10 (which equals great but not life changing); my wife gave it a 6 / 10 (fun but not exceptional). Content: PG-13 but I honestly can’t remember why. Surely some language, and it implies the existence of sex.
resenha do filme Bezerra de Menezes: O Diario de um Espírito
I just saw the most boring film EVER. I never would have finished it if I hadn’t been watching for the Portuguese. It’s a pity, because Bezerra de Menezes was apparently this amazing and inspiring doctor to the poor. At least the film doesn’t steal his brilliance (just obscures it).
chato, maçador, e … chato pra burro: É uma pena que uma vida tão boa seja honrada com um filme tão ruim
Ao final deste filme, o seguinte texto aparece no écran: “Bezerra de Menezes desencarnou [o que os espíritas acham que passa no lugar da morte] em 11 de abril de 1900. … Durante sua passagem na Terra, ficou conhecido como o Médico dos Pobres, O Unificador do Espiritismo, Apóstolo do Espiritismo, Kaderc Brasileiro. Alguns espíritas acreditam que Bezerra de Menezes foi a reencarnação de Zaqueu, o 13o Apóstolo de Jesus Cristo.” Isso, e as entrevistas com pessoas comuns sobre o significado da vida de Bezerra para elas que mostran durante os créditos finais do filme, são as partes mais interessantes do filme – de longe.
O resto do filme compreende uma narração monótona da vida de Bezerra, interrompida por cenas monótonas demostrando cada aspecto da sua vida: uma cena de infância (cuando ele observa uma menina possuída por um demonio (dá a impressão enganadora que vai ser um filme de horror e não de sono), uma cena da escola médica, uma cena com um discurso político contra a escravidão, uma cena com um discurso sobre o espiritismo, e mais e mais. [Bocejo]
Se quiser aprender de Bezerra, recomendo que leia sua página de Wikipedia (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezerra_de_menezes): Será mais interessante que o filme e tomará muito menos tempo.
Uma nota sobre o conteúdo: A única coisa ofensiva neste filme é o aborrecimento que induz.
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