Manaus--

       .

      For those of you planning a future trip to Brazil,I would highly recommend a " thematic""visit what is becoming an annual and important event for cinema lovers,the Amazonas  Film Festival.

     Near the muddy waters of  Amazon the Fest is based lovely opera house, Teatro Amazonas and has a full schedule for a week which includes not only new feature films but short documentarties,videos  and workshops.

     Attendance at one or more of these events each day can be spiced with trips down the Amazon to see the crossing of the black with the brown waters as well a long-distance journey on the river to such Hotels Ariau Jungle Tower ,where a visitor will literally be sleeping with a background of of exotic birds chirping, frogs croaking and whatever sounds monkees and crocodiles normally emit.This Hotel has been visited by a host of stars from Steven Spielberg to reportedly Queen Elizabeth to most recently stars of the Amazonas Film Festival,Polish director Roman Polanski and the eternally lovely and charming Italian actress favored by Fellini,Herzog and Visconti,Claudia Cardinale. 

        As this cautious and often fearful tourist has already paid his dues and visited these supposed  jungle havens of Tarzan and Jane, I chose to spend most of my time at the recent Amazon Film Festival--when  not viewing the celluloid proceedings-- at one of my favorite hotels in the world, the Tropical Manaus. Resembling a gigantic tree house based on land,the hotel with 588 apartments,numerous luxury shops,a tourism agency,pools and a mini zoo forces a visitor to walk ,walk,walk just to go to breakfast or for other activites.Its  19th century French-style architecture reminds a visitor of an age before the current Made- in-the USA plastic  hotels began their reign.

       Here's one for name dropping: when not swimming in the pool with  Polish film director Roman Polanski ---now I can say I swam with the director of "Oliver Twist" which closed the FestivaL--or sitting   at the opera house near veteran American actor Ben Gazzara and jury Canadian director Norman ("Moonstruck") Jewison or interviewing Claudia Cardinale (Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo"), this visitor also peeked in at what native talents from the Amazon and other parts of B razil were doing.

       I was very pleasantly surprised by a series of one minute videos produced by local students which proved that in this internet age, expression via words is perhaps a limited--and dying ?--art form. These one minute gems expressed and covered despite time limitations the same subjects as million dollar ,super productions made in Hollywood try to cover:the impact of poverty, jealousy, ecology,  crime and violence.

      Example: a local socialite kills an alligator in her backyard ,is smeared with blood and quickly cleans up and dresses to attend a gala cinematic opening for the benefit ...of saving the Amazon! All in one minute.

      Off off  the opera house route, my visit to the Festival included viewing as well a fine Made in Brazil documentary "Men Can Fly," by Nelson Hoineff documentary which should eventually enter the world videio circuit:the full story including with images from the early 1900s of the real father of aviation Santos Dumont.A Brazilian who resided in Paris much of his adult life,Dumont became a national ,decorated hero in France when he first flew his bi-plane over the Eiffel Tower and committed suicide in his native Petropolis, the state of Rio de Janeiro  life in his 30s when he discovered to his dismay that his noble invention was being used by mankind for warfare.

      Besides "Oliver Twist," which closed the Festival with Polanski present at the opera house, other highlights of the November 2005 Festival included an outdoor showing of "Fitzcarraldo,"which was filmed in 1982 by Werner Herzog with Ms. Cardinale in the Amazon and at the opera house.Because I do not have a clone--yet--I wasn't able to view all the films I would have liked to attend but my favorites included besides "Öliver Twist." "The World's Fastest Indian" with the inimitable Anthony Hopkins as a motorcycle racer who refuses to grow old,"Man to Man,"a French-UK film by Regis Wargnier  about an anthropologist who captures pigmies and brings them to Europe and "Dreaming Lhasa,Ïndia-UK by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam,about the plight of Tibetan refugees removed from their culture and habitat.

The winner of the  Festival was "Shooting Dogs"by Michael Caton-Jones,a UK_German production,concerning a Catholic Priest and a local Porfessor of English in Ruanda meeting during the genocide of the Tutsis.

 

      The parties during the Fest would have been the envy of Hollywood with the traditional Amazonic folklore of samba dancers dressed as Bois,or Bulls ,dancing on the sands in front of the Rio Negro Amazon riverside as the food and drink flowed. Amongst the animated crowd were stars of the Brazilian soap opera world,familiar to the natives of course but generally unknown to a foreign guest. 

       Other celebrations took place at the numerous cultural centers converted from  sumptuous early 20th century mansions of the former Rubber Barons of the Amazon,

       Book and plan early for November ,2006 --which the organizers tell me is still in the planning stages and will include invitees who sparkle in the film industry during the New Year. 

       And whatever your interest,a thematic tourist trip to Brazil,readers and potential tourists,is well worth it.

 

ends 

 

Escrito por harold emert às 11h27
[] [envie esta mensagem]

 Manaus--

       .

      For those of you planning a future trip to Brazil,I would highly recommend a " thematic""visit what is becoming an annual and important event for cinema lovers,the Amazonas  Film Festival.

     Near the muddy waters of  Amazon the Fest is based lovely opera house, Teatro Amazonas and has a full schedule for a week which includes not only new feature films but short documentarties,videos  and workshops.

     Attendance at one or more of these events each day can be spiced with trips down the Amazon to see the crossing of the black with the brown waters as well a long-distance journey on the river to such Hotels Ariau Jungle Tower ,where a visitor will literally be sleeping with a background of of exotic birds chirping, frogs croaking and whatever sounds monkees and crocodiles normally emit.This Hotel has been visited by a host of stars from Steven Spielberg to reportedly Queen Elizabeth to most recently stars of the Amazonas Film Festival,Polish director Roman Polanski and the eternally lovely and charming Italian actress favored by Fellini,Herzog and Visconti,Claudia Cardinale. 

        As this cautious and often fearful tourist has already paid his dues and visited these supposed  jungle havens of Tarzan and Jane, I chose to spend most of my time at the recent Amazon Film Festival--when  not viewing the celluloid proceedings-- at one of my favorite hotels in the world, the Tropical Manaus. Resembling a gigantic tree house based on land,the hotel with 588 apartments,numerous luxury shops,a tourism agency,pools and a mini zoo forces a visitor to walk ,walk,walk just to go to breakfast or for other activites.Its  19th century French-style architecture reminds a visitor of an age before the current Made- in-the USA plastic  hotels began their reign.

       Here's one for name dropping: when not swimming in the pool with  Polish film director Roman Polanski ---now I can say I swam with the director of "Oliver Twist" which closed the FestivaL--or sitting   at the opera house near veteran American actor Ben Gazzara and jury Canadian director Norman ("Moonstruck") Jewison or interviewing Claudia Cardinale (Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo"), this visitor also peeked in at what native talents from the Amazon and other parts of B razil were doing.

       I was very pleasantly surprised by a series of one minute videos produced by local students which proved that in this internet age, expression via words is perhaps a limited--and dying ?--art form. These one minute gems expressed and covered despite time limitations the same subjects as million dollar ,super productions made in Hollywood try to cover:the impact of poverty, jealousy, ecology,  crime and violence.

      Example: a local socialite kills an alligator in her backyard ,is smeared with blood and quickly cleans up and dresses to attend a gala cinematic opening for the benefit ...of saving the Amazon! All in one minute.

      Off off  the opera house route, my visit to the Festival included viewing as well a fine Made in Brazil documentary "Men Can Fly," by Nelson Hoineff documentary which should eventually enter the world videio circuit:the full story including with images from the early 1900s of the real father of aviation Santos Dumont.A Brazilian who resided in Paris much of his adult life,Dumont became a national ,decorated hero in France when he first flew his bi-plane over the Eiffel Tower and committed suicide in his native Petropolis, the state of Rio de Janeiro  life in his 30s when he discovered to his dismay that his noble invention was being used by mankind for warfare.

      Besides "Oliver Twist," which closed the Festival with Polanski present at the opera house, other highlights of the November 2005 Festival included an outdoor showing of "Fitzcarraldo,"which was filmed in 1982 by Werner Herzog with Ms. Cardinale in the Amazon and at the opera house.Because I do not have a clone--yet--I wasn't able to view all the films I would have liked to attend but my favorites included besides "Öliver Twist." "The World's Fastest Indian" with the inimitable Anthony Hopkins as a motorcycle racer who refuses to grow old,"Man to Man,"a French-UK film by Regis Wargnier  about an anthropologist who captures pigmies and brings them to Europe and "Dreaming Lhasa,Ïndia-UK by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam,about the plight of Tibetan refugees removed from their culture and habitat.

The winner of the  Festival was "Shooting Dogs"by Michael Caton-Jones,a UK_German production,concerning a Catholic Priest and a local Porfessor of English in Ruanda meeting during the genocide of the Tutsis.

 

      The parties during the Fest would have been the envy of Hollywood with the traditional Amazonic folklore of samba dancers dressed as Bois,or Bulls ,dancing on the sands in front of the Rio Negro Amazon riverside as the food and drink flowed. Amongst the animated crowd were stars of the Brazilian soap opera world,familiar to the natives of course but generally unknown to a foreign guest. 

       Other celebrations took place at the numerous cultural centers converted from  sumptuous early 20th century mansions of the former Rubber Barons of the Amazon,

       Book and plan early for November ,2006 --which the organizers tell me is still in the planning stages and will include invitees who sparkle in the film industry during the New Year. 

       And whatever your interest,a thematic tourist trip to Brazil,readers and potential tourists,is well worth it.

 

ends 

 

Escrito por harold emert às 11h27
[] [envie esta mensagem]

 >  

Pele's son jailed

This item is indeed sad news anda commentary on some of  the younger generation of Brazilians,unfortunately,copying their counterparts abroad. 

 > Sao Paulo-- Brazilian authorities say they have enough taped proof to indict Pele's son Edinho ,34, who was  jailed earlier this week on accusations of dealings with drug traffickers.

           Police claim the eavsdropped coversations they have definitively display that Edinho had bunsiness negotiations involving drug cachets.

>         Edinho was jailed with 49 other suspects earlier this week after a prolonged investigation by Brazilian police which linked the group to a drug cartel in Santos,which has been earning enormous profits with sales of drugs all over Brazil. 

>  

> Commenting on the imprisonment of Edinho, the ex-king of football Pele says" I feel as if God is testing me. The irony is that all my life I have fought against drug use.I once made an ad campaign against the use of drugs saying that I'd travelled all over the world and returned but never gone on a drug trip because there is no return."

> >            Crying when he visited his son in jail earlier this week,the athlete of the century adds "Ït is very sad for a father o discover that his son is involved with drug traffickers and drug money launderers.I never dreamt that my son would become a footballer.And speaking truthfully I didn't want him to be a goalkeeper but he became one."  

> >  

> >    Pele says he does not fear his own image will bge affected by the arrest of his son.

> >  

> >     On the contrary --I think that the fact that I am trying to help my son will give an incentive for other families to help their children with the same problem."

> >         Pele says his son Edinho-who in a written statement now admits he has dependency for drugs---"never displayed this side of his personality.It as if he has two personaliuties.Maybe I was always too busy working to havbe observed this side pf him.

> >       "But as I said I have always fought against drug use and don't feel guilty for his plight.I have always given my children backing and love.I believe that many families have suffered from this problem and I regret that I didn't discover this problem before it came to the point that it has come."

> >         Brazilian police delegate Ivaney Cayres de Souza says that Ëdinho used the name of his faherto enter into the world of laundering drug money.He spoke about arms deals,about the fight for power between vairous groups ,discuss various deaths,There are pictures,films and finally we have eight mnonths of wiretaps."

> >           He adds ;"the fact that Edinho has admitted that he is drug dependent doesn't exclude his participation in the gang." 

>             

Escrito por harold emert às 00h42
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cellphone factory in the Amazon

 

Cellphone factory in the Amazon

 

from

harold emert

rio-brazil

tel. 5521-2522-7594

or 5521-9379-1771

 

Manaus--As an observer of 32 years of residing and working in Brazil looked around at the recently inaugurated factory by Frances Sagem Communication of their cellphones GSM, he could only think "the country of the perpetual future has indeed come a long way."

               And perhaps via such encouraging developments as this importation of French ultra-modern technology to the capital of the Amazon jungle,Brazil is on its way to reaching the potential of a giant,economically and politically which has always been predicted for this continent in Latin America?

               This observer comes from a generation of emigrants to Brazil who arrived in the 1970s in what was then the land of the bossa nova and economic miracle of a then military government gradually departing the reigns of power. During these pre-cellphone years to make a call from a public phone involved  a wait in the hot tropical sun often up to an hour in a culture which often prefers the oral word over the written one.To complicate matters,a  private telephone line then cost around one thousand US dollars and there was quite a waiting list.

                   And all these obstacles stated above resulted consequently in inestimable losses of manpower,time,energy,production and human resources.

                  Today even the doorman and the housemaid in Brazil own a cellphone and in the next ten years no one will be excluded from its use.

                 Speaking to reporters on 28 June in Manaus  as a cocktail complete with a small string orchestra playing Mozart at the  inauguration of their new factory generating an initial 150 new jobs, Sagem  Communication President and Principal Executive Officer Gregoire Olivier emphasized that two billion persons will be using cellphones all over the world  by 2007.The number of users will go to three billion after that date with cellphones including TV receptors,internet,e mail among other qualifications.

                 Giving visitors including  Amazonas state governor Eduardo Braga,a grande tour of a factory which 30 years ago might have seemed more out of Jules Verne fantasy story, Monsieur Olivier emphasied as well that the french firm was following ecologically correct measures by eliminating lead in its cellphones and that it would recycle its compnents.

                Based in Fougeres,France, Sagem Communication (of the Safran Group) recently inaugurated as well a joint-venture in China with Ningo Bird 300 kilometers from Shanghai.

                 Queried how did Brazil compare to China in welcoming imported technology.,M. Oliviier surprised at least this observer by claiming that importation and bureaucracy in Manaus ,Brazil was simpler!

                 This claim by a foreign investor is another miracle for a Brazil,usually referered to as backward in its cumbersome bureaucracy for importing new technoliogy and getting a new industry working day to day. 

                  The new factory will export not only to all Brazil but all of Latin America and eventually the USA.       

 

ends

Escrito por harold emert às 16h22
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a Greek Hero in Brazil

 

Rio de Janeiro--Visiting Brazil with his family Greece's Polyvios Kossivas,53,--who rescued Brazilian runner Vanderlei Cordeiro free himself in Athens from the hands of Irish religious fanatic Cornelius Horan--says: "Winston Churchill siad during WWII that heroes fight like Greeks. I would say that heroes fight like Vanderlei."

     As a spectator who witnessed first hand the incident which resulted in the brazilian runner finishing in third placce rather than winning the olympics, Kossivas  claims Ï have information which will prove that Vanderlei would have won the Olympic run if iit wasn't for horan.He was thrown to the ground ,lost his rhythm and precious seconds.'"  

     The Greek visited Copacabana beach in Rio on Saturday to a heroes welcome by local fans who paid for his drink,rwequested his autographed and personally thanked him for his kindness in Athens. He is on his way to visit the Ayrton Senna museum in Sao Paulo after receiving a medal for his efforts in Rio by the Brazilian Olympic confedation.

   "I hope that reports of my visit to Brazil are read in Greece and that they discover that I am a hero in Brazil," says Kossivas. He is accompanied on his Brazilian sojourn by his wife Ioulia,faughter Smargsda and a friend who is acting as an interpreter.

 

Escrito por harold emert às 07h49
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Oops--it's been a while since I updated this blog....here's a new item from guest blogger Phlis Huber

2 Dec 2004

happy birthday  to you , ana emert..

are there any readers out there?

yesterday was ana, other half of oboe player, composer,journalist,recently turned brasilian,harold emert , the owner of this blog.'s birthday,

and i am honoured to have been invited to the festivities, to

"comer um pedaco do peru  do harold" , as ana jokingly told her illustrous guests.

i didnt, because i was also invited to go to the openning of

"jura, phylis este e hetro"

thailand restaurant, nightclub,  dance floor, bar

spazio,  rua raul refern, 36

moet chandon is the drink of the house.  e da pra resistir champagne and delicious food....

is it hetro?

 

VAI.! ..me conte! ...

voce decide
 
 
 
 

from there pra a festa no rival.

que festona!

uma escola de samba

alegria da zona sul,  o rei momo, as passistas

todos estava

 

angela leal , a rainha da casa,  fernando bicudo, as tranvestiadaria toda

 

"a arte entra em cena
o show vai comecar"

carnaval 2005

 o maximo
 
 

oh yes,
 

 andrew reed  chef of honour   MILANO DOC, (see programa, jornal dobrasil  pg. 44) a full scottish meal... a bagpipe (from sao paulo)

no way wasnt going to check it out
 

scottish food is  delicious!
 
 
 
 
 

Escrito por harold emert às 07h45
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