A Gringo in Rio

Friday, May 3, 2013

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

Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Evolution of Beer in Brazil

Another thing that makes my wife and I happy is the taste of a really good beer. Happily, the beer in Brazil these days is the best it's ever been. Eleven years ago, when I was on my first trip to Brazil with my then-girlfriend (now wife =^), we came here to Rio for a visit. It was during the 2002 World Cup and it was a great trip, to say the least. The only conceivable problem was that all of the beer tasted the same. The Brahma tasted like Antarctica, which tasted like Bavaria, which tasted like Skol. Yes, there's a beer called Skol; but rest assured knowing it contains no chewing tobacco. They are all light bodied--and inexpensive--lager style beers. The Bud/Coors/Miller of Brazil. They like to serve beer extremely cold here, both to beat the heat and to disguise how little taste the mass-produced, corn-and-rice beers have. Most mainstream markets weren't selling anything imported besides Heineken and back then, the little mom-and-pop beer shops that have opened simply didn't exist. To make matters worse, Heineken began brewing in Brazil so it wasn't even imported anymore. D'oh!

Happily, things have changed and the craft beer movement has come to Brazil with great gusto. They make some pretty great suds now. Each state in Brazil seems to have it's own thing going, but Rio, Sao Paulo and Paranã (where Curitiba, our former home, is located) seem to be further along than the others. The substantial German population in Brazil (since the 17th century) has led to a tradition of lager and other light styles, but now fine wheats (weiss, weizenbock, dunkel weiss), bocks, stouts, belgian-styles, IPAs and other styles abound. All prices are in US dollars (currently about $1US to $2 Brazilian reais) and almost all are Brazilian made. There were a few I included because I'd not had the chance to try them in the US before we left.

Coruja Weizen from Coruja (it means "owl"l in
Portuguese) Brewery. A fine wheat, with a typically

citrusy flavor with an undertone of clove. Refreshing.

About 5.2% in a 600 ml bottle. About $6US.

Coruja Weizenbock, also from Coruja Brewery

A real find. Weizenbock is hard to locate here in

Brazil. And this one is the goods, rivaling some of the

better German weizenbocks I've had. Darker malts but

with a slightly sweet finish because of the extra time

in the tank. This one is usually 6.8%. 600ml, also $6.

Another nice wheat. I only had this once but it was

good with excellent carbonation and more clove than

lemon flavor in the wheat malt. I don't recall if Matilda

is the name of the brewery or just the name this style
beer, but I wish I could find it again. 600ml, about $7.

A brewery in Curitiba called Way is making

excellent beer (you'll see more from Way

below). Diabolica is an IPA which is (obviously)

6.66%. Excellent. Sorry no photo of the beer

itself; it's about the same amber color as Sierra

Nevad Pale Ale. One of the best beers in Brazil

but sold only in 315ml bottles and are about $4US.

Diabolica (above) and the below are probably my

two favorite Brazilian craft-brew beers. Colorado

is an excellent brewery located outside of Sao Paulo

and this beer, called Indica, is a terrific IPA and I wish

it weren't expensive, but they're about $6-7 (US) each.

Happily, it's a 600ml bottle, so it's 2 for 1.

This one, Bierbaum Bock, is another I could only

find in a certain store and could only find it a few

times, but it's fine. A roasted malt pleasure with

excellent carbonation and nice finish. As I recall,

this one was about 6.3% or so. 600ml.

This is a stout from Brew Dog, a beer from Ireland

that I'd never had before, but the owner of the beer bar

called Templo da Cerveja in Curitiba had a relationship

with Brew Dog and got a couple kegs of it. Delish.

While I had heard of it, I had never had any

Brooklyn beers until I was in Curitiba. This is

their excellent IPA...absolutely among the best

IPAs I've had. 7.2%, but over $5 for a 355ml.

Way (maker of Diabolica) also makes several

other styles, including a solid, deep amber Irish

Red Ale. As I recall, about 5.5% and about

$3.50US per 350 ml bottle

Way also makes what is referred to over here

as an APA, an American Pale Ale, meaning a

more aggressively hopped, California-style

pale. Same price as the Irish Red.

Serra Malte is one of the few classic lager pure

malt beers made here. There are others (Brahma

Extra, Bavaria Puro Malte), but this is one of the

best. This one is typically straw-colored but has a

wonderful carbonation and the hop/malt combo in

this innocuous looking brew is great. 5.5%600ml.

This is Paulistania, a Sao Paulo lager, also pure

malt and a solid beer. Not quite as good as

Serra Malte above but good; typical pale

yellow color and 4.8% in a 600ml size.

About $4, but just got a bunch on sale at

a local market for $2.

This was mentioned above; it's the "standard"

Brahma's big, sophisticated brother. Yeah, it's a

big brewery, but this one is a crisp, good lager.

It's a pure malt too, sold in 355ml and one of

the best deals around, $1. At 5.5%.

And this was one of the first premium beers I

found in Curitiba, after we began living here in

2010. It's from Bohemia, another major beer

player in Brazil, but this one is just awesome.

It's a Belgian style, very amber but with the

wonderful, slightly sweet finish you'd expect in

a beer of this style..

So that's all for today. I hope that when you come to visit Brazil, you'll now have a better idea what to look and ask for. In Rio, the best beer bar I've found to date is called Delirium Cafe, on Barao da Torre in Ipanema. Hundreds of beer from all over the world and about 4 or 5 taps at all times, always including famed Delirium Tremens.....from whom the inspiration for the Cafe came from. In Sao Paulo, look for the Colorado Indica listed above; they also do a lager, a wheat and a dark ale that are good too.

In Curitiba, there are a few great beer bars: Templo da Cerveja, Clube do Malte and Slainte. All are great in their own way. Templo has a wide selection and while it's normally only bottles, they occasionally have wonderful kegs of the best suds from all over the world. I had a Sierra Nevada Triple seasonal there that was sheer insanity. Clube do Malte is also very solid. As you can imagine from the name, Slainte is an Irish bar; plenty of good beer here and.....Guiness on tap. Nuff said.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Eric

Thursday, April 18, 2013

I love surfboards

I love surfing and surfboards. Surfing came into my life over thirty years ago and even though my first ride was on a 9 foot banana yellow Doyle softboard, I wanted it. It was at Old Man's outside the Outrigger at the east end of Waikiki. I was with my cousin Rob, who helped get me into my first waves. I stood up on my first ride. Though I was desperate for it, I didn't get that board. I was far luckier. Said cousin Rob happened to own a surfboard company.

My first board was a 7'6" Local Motion pintail single fin. I got it off the rack at the LM Kapiolani store in Honolulu. In the early-80s, this kind of board was called a "mini-tanker", long before the term "fun board" made it's way into the surfing lexicon. It was a great board; sadly, stolen, but boy, did I have a lot of amazing rides on it, including my first in-and-out tube ride as well as my first time riding switch stance. I clumsily switched from goofy to regular; for the uninitiated, that means "changing from surfing right foot forward to left foot forward".

That was a memorable wave: a long, long right-hander at a surf spot called Poles outside the Marine Biology Lab on the campus at UCSB. I surfed this particular head-high, glassy wave from Poles all the way to Goleta Beach, which is off-campus...a two football field (200 yard+) ride, all riding with my left foot forward for the first time. A thrilling, man-I'll-never-forget-this-wave kind of experience.

After that board was taken, I got ahold of my brother's 6'6" fish-tailed Local Motion with glass-on thruster fins. Boy did I dig that stick: a great beach break board but could handle anything, as it was a full 3" thick and 21" wide. It's an airbrush job so ugly that it's cool.

Happily, I still have the above Local Motion. It's appropriately
dubbed The Funky Avocado.

Here are some other boards of mine, past and present. The numbers
in the between the parentheses are the board's measurements, listed as such:
(nose width 12" from tip, mid-ship width, tail width 12" from tip and thickness).

Boss 10'1" with 1"red cedar stringer
(18.5"x24"x16.5"x3.5")

Hunt Customs New Dimension 9'10"

with resin tiger striping. My cheeks,
white with too much zinc oxide

Deck of Hunt 9'10"mere moments before it's

maiden voyage at First Point, spring '05.

(19"x23"x16"x 3.25")

Bing 10'0" Silver Spoon
(18.5"x23x15.5"x3.25")

Murphy 10'5" custom with 1" red cedar center

stringer and 1/4" outboards, emerald tint.

(18.5"x23.5"x16"x3.5")

Dennis Andries 11'0" mega-noserider with

an 11" glass-on fin. Ton of tail kick.

(20"x25"x15.5"x4")

This will be my board for my 70's,

though it's awfully fun to ride now.
My friend Buzz calls it the LDP, my
"lay-down-paddle" board. Ouch!

This is an 11'0" Terry Martin Legacy. That's Terry

standing there holding it, shortly before I picked

it up, Spring 2011. More on Terry later.

17.5"x24"x16.5x3.375"

Not bad, eh? Movie stars, swimming pools. ;^D

Mitch Taylor Model, let's say "an homage to" (or, less charitably,

"a ripoff of") the famed Con Ugly model. Wonderful tiprider.

Heavier than the 11'0" Terry Martin.

10'6"x20"x24"x17"x3.5"

Tyler Custom noserider for Bill Gray.

Another tremendous schnozzer. You can

see a pattern developing here.

10'4"x19"x24"x16"x3.25"

I will not be so slack in posting. This has been a crazy last couple weeks, marred by back pain. But it's better now....80% and climbing. =^}

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

As Águas de Março.....the waters of March. It's a famous song by Jobim, one of my favorites. It's a duet with a singer named Elis Regina. Have a look at the original; they're obviously having a ball:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qle1OrunKnE&feature=plcp

It rains a lot here in Rio in March. A lot. But after the rather ridiculously warm summer we've just finished, the rain is nice. It doesn't make it that much cooler, but getting back to the high 70s and low 80s feels so much better. And it's about damn time. Now it's reasonable: i.e., you don't
immediately perspire through your shirt the moment you walk outside. Now it takes a good 10 minutes.

We're fortunate to live on a quiet street--shockingly quiet for a city like Rio--so it's as nice to hear to rain as it feels. The hush of the steady rain on the tree leaves and the street is sublime. Slowly, it'll back off and the birds will begin to sing and call for each other. And then it'll begin again, as hard as before and the birds fall silent.

Dreaming of a sunny day, but enjoying this too.

Eric

Vieira Souto, Ipanema