I love music.

Good evening.  I'd to share some music photos and art with you.

 

 

This was probably the best album of the entirety of 1981.

Known simply as The Beat in England, they were The

English Beat in the US because of The Beat, Paul Collins'

band (former partner of Peter Case in the Nerves).

 

 

 

 

Classic Beatles

 

 

 

Yardbirds

 

 

 

 

Newport, Hendrix, 1969

 

 

Art Blakey....probably early 60's.

 

Bob, around '80. 

                    Paul Barrere and Lowell George of Little Feat, Jimmy Pages's favorite band. 

 

 

 

Speaking of Led Zeppelin, '73

 

"A Great Day in Harlem 1958"

See the documentary (of the same name), which you

can find out more about here. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Great_Day_in_Harlem 

 

 

 

 

Miles and Coltrane, '59 or '60 in the
"Kind of Blue" time frame.

 

 

                                         Roger Waters, doing Dark Side Of The Moon at

The Hollywood Bowl.

                                        A classic double exposure of Keith and Mick in '73.
                                           From the camera of the late, great Jim Marshall.



 

 

 

The Mothers of Invention, Fillmore West '69

 

 

Ry Cooder, 1984. 

 

 

Phil and Bob, '68.

 

 

 

GD, '77

 

 

Pigpen '69

 

 

 

Frost Amphitheater, 1986

 

 

 

There is no better city in all the world

to see music than New Orleans.

 

 



Corcovado. O Cristo Redentor.  Or simply "The Christ".   Obviously, along

with Copocabana and Ipanema beaches and the Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar),
Corcovado is one of the most famous sites in all of Rio; all of Brazil, really. 
It's also the most omnipresent, as the statue can be seen from almost
anywhere you are in Rio, from Centro (downtown) to the end of Leblon,

and across the bay to Niteroi.  The statue itself is the single largest art deco

sculpture in the entire world. 

Though I've been living in Brasil for almost three years now and have been

coming to Brasil since 2002, I'd never taken the time to go up to Corcovado. 

It's one of those things that you have to plan ahead and go with a group on a

bus with driver who knows the way or you take a cab, as you have to traverse

a couple somewhat sketchy favelas on the way up the mountain.  My family

and I took the latter option. 

We recently had a day off in the middle of the week, one of the wonderful,

unexpected days off, this one from an obscure Brazilian holiday.  When the

day broke beautiful, our decision to visit the Corcovado was made for us. 

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 This is the view when you're walking up from the where the

tram/bus drops visitors off.  Heady stuff, to say the least.



 

 

 

 

The iconic view from the far end of the platform.   Impressive.

 

This is the view of the Lagoa Rodrigo Freitas, known as simply the Lagoa.

We're looking due south from directly below the Cristo. And the strip of land

between the lagoa and the ocean is Ipanema (on the left 2/3) and Leblon, after

the canal which separates Ipanema and Leblon.  Now you know why it's so

hard to find a place to live here.  We got very lucky.  Yes, that's a horserace

track on the far right, O Hippodromo.

These next six photos are a panorama from north to south,
beginning with Centro and many other barros of downtown
Rio, across the harbor, Flamengo and Botafogo, followed by
Pão de Açúcar and Copacabana, then Ipanema and Leblon.

The bridge connects Rio with São Gonçalo and Niterói.  The
international airport, named after bossa nova innovator and
Brasilian national hero Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim is there. 



 

Pão de Açúcar is dead center with the Botafogo marina just
to the left. To the right is Leme, the start of Copacabana.


The west end of Copacabana, then the gigantic
edifice that separates it from Ipanema.



 

You'll recognize the below from the "Lagoa" photo above.  Ipanema
and Leblon.  The famous mountain known as Dois Irmãos (two
brothers, because the peak is split) is at the far right. You can view
other photos of Dois Irmãos in earlier of my posts about Ipanema.

 

 

 



Looking southeast, towards Barra (pronounced the same as "Baja",
as Brazilians roll their Rsso much that they become an H).  I love

the contrast of the umbrellas in this photo, if I do say so myself. 

 



There was this insane hang glider flying around the Corcovado this day. 
This is not uncommon but this particular pilot seemed completely unfazed
by his proximity to the Cristo, or to death, for that matter.  He kept
buzzing the statue; I half expected Jesus to smite him down with a

quick slap.  But then again, it wouldn't have been particularly cool
thing to do and a little out of character for the big guy. 



 

A vast expanse of sky, a protruding arm and the glider.

As you can see, the guy was clearly nuts.



 

 

This may be my single favorite photograph I've ever taken in my life, out

of tens of thousands of pictures snapped, both analog and digital.  And to be

clear, I'm talking from a purely photographic point of view.  The ironic

thing is, I'm not religious, so the "grandeur" part of Corcovado for me

comes from the views, not the symbolism.

  

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I hope you enjoyed this trip to the Corcovado and now have a better idea
for how Rio is laid out.  It's an amazing city and though we've now been
living here in Rio for half a year, I still feel like I'm just beginning to
scratch the surface. 
Until next time. 

Eric

Our former home....Curitiba

Happy Friday, Everyone-

From the end of August 2010 until December 2012, we lived in the city of Curitiba.  It's in the southern Brazilian state of Parana.  It's a city that's older than the United States; it was founded in 1693.  It's been regular cited as the "most livable city" in the entire country of Brazil.  And it lives up to the hype.  It was a good place to live and here are some of the highlights of it.



These beautiful trees only bloom once a year

and we had clear, blue skies all week.

 

 

Weird to have fall in April and May. 

This is the Oscar Niemayer Museum, also known as
"The Eye".  Niemayer is the most heralded architect in
Brazil's history.  At 104, he  just passed away a few

months ago.  His unique, modernist style is known

throughout the world.

 

 

 

Brazil is known for barbecue, but few know that

"churrasco", the style of barbecuing, comes from

southern Brazil.  Parana and Rio Grande do Sul

have long ranching traditions and the gauchos

make the best barbecue in the country.  

This is one of the skylines in Curitiba.  Twenty

story skyscrapers are very common here these

and construction is never ending.  The sad thing

is that many beautiful one- and two-story edifices

are coming down these days. 

 



 

 

These are called capybaras.  Bizarro, dog-sized

rodents.  Yes they really are rodents.  I'd guess this

guy weighs 20-25 kilos but they can get up to

65-70 kilos (150 lbs).  They look harmless but

apparently have very sharp teeth and, if frightened,

don't have what one might call friendly dispositions.

About 200 miles from Curitiba is the beautiful

area known as Florianopolis, commonly known

as "Floripa".  Floripa is officially a peninsula but

it's called an island.  This beach is Praia Mole

("soft beach"), a famous surfing area.

 

 

 

 

This is a couple beaches north on of Praia Mole,

a beach known as Barra.  Incredibly clear water.

This is a place I could live. 

 

 

I saw this bus and couldn't quite believe my eyes.

San Francisco?  Sure.  Curitiba?  Huh?   But an

awesome paint job. Quite an eyeful.

This type of tree is found nowhere else in the world

other than southern Brazil.  These are called araucaria

(Araucaria angustifolia, for those who want to know).

These are everywhere here; they're the state tree and

can't be cut down.  Beauties.

 

 

 

This is one of the trails in Parque Barigui, an urban

park in the middle of Curitiba.  It's a place I spent

hundreds of hours walking around.  There's a huge

lake on one side and a wooded area on the other.

 

 

This is what an araucaria looks like from beneath.

 

 

 

These are called Geoffrey's Marmosets.  They flock in

the trees in places like Parque Barigui.  They seriously

look like they could come from Central Casting as
"freaky looking monkeys".  Unreal.

 

 

 

This is a sculpture at the garden at MON

(Museo Oscar Niemayer).

 

 

 

This is a view from a huge radio and cell phone

transmission tower.  In a way, it's a city somewhat

like L.A. in that it's got areas of skyscrapers, but

the further you get away from the city center, the

more beautiful it becomes.

 

 

 

Pinga.  Cachaça.  This stuff is the rum of Brazil.

Sugar liquor; these are artisanal cachaças that a

friend in Curitiba has collected and boy, are they

good.  The one I liked most was the 2nd from

the left....absolutely as good as a 20 year old

scotch.  Smoky and yet so smooth. 

 

 

My kids riding their bikes in Parque Barigui.  This is

in between the lake and the woods.

 

 

 

This was an abstract photo I shot at a Yanni show.  I do

not like Yanni--at all--but two of my good friends from L.A.

were actually touring with the Man with the Moustache, 

capturing the show.  Yanni is the personification of cheese, but

 I will say he did have a really good band.  And at the soundcheck,

he was nice enough to say my kids were really cute, so he got a

couple brownie points there.  We had a great time, but only after

the gig was over.  Beers, sushi and other assorted fun until 2am

made it all good. Cheers to Whit and Matt ;^D   

 

 

That's all for this installment of GiR.  I hope this is occasionally entertaining and informative for you.  Cheers and have a great weekend.

Eric