a taste of brazil

hey! it's not so much that i've been lazy about blogging recently, as things have just been a little crazy.

one of the things that kept me busy in the past month was an amazing trip to porto alegre, brazil. thanks to my new friend bernardo and all of his coworkers at the usina do gasômetro, i had the opportunity to play a show there and to present a screening of shortbus.

so now that i'm back home in new york and waiting for my laundry to dry, i figured i should post a few pictures.



apparently brazilians like their espresso with a little shot of jesus. this is a latte i had at the airport, and the cup reads: "good jesus coffee." i suppose even miracle workers need their caffeine in the morning.



some porto alegre skyline. i'm terrified of heights and could hardly stand on bernardo's terrace long enough to snap this photo.



i've been very lucky in the past couple of years to have the opportunity to see some different parts of the world. and in all of my travels, one thing is consistent around the world: disgust with the american government.

how is it that every single country on earth sees what the majority of americans cannot? come on U.S.A., wake the fuck up. and while you're at it, learn spanish or something. you're embarrassing me.



aesthetically, porto alegre isn't what most people think of when they hear the word "brazil." there are no beaches or jungles, but here is a view of the river from the terrace of the usina.



brazil...or amsterdam?



this picture reminds me of standing in the southern tip of central park and seeing the buildings of manhattan over the trees.



a busy street in downtown porto alegre



they eat more red meat in brazil than they do in texas. this is me eating my favorite meal in porto alegre at gambrinus in the market downtown. i generally don't eat much beef, but i have to admit this was the best steak i have ever had.



"just give me the fucking camera"



a square downtown. note that the building in the background stole its design from my website. i don't mind, since i'll probably have jaybrannan.com redesigned soon anyway, and this way the gear motif will live on somewhere.






this ice cream was mad good. they didn't know the english word for the yellow flavor, and kept trying to tell me we didn't have it in america. we looked it up later and it was "passionfruit." i was like "bitch we fucking have passionfruit in america," and then i Z-snapped.



even cats in brazil aspire to be supermodels like the brazilian icon gisele. this anorexic kitty hasn't eaten in days. i wish i had her willpower.


AND FINALLY...i always get excited when i'm at someone else's house and they have a real piano. and when i sat down to play, i saw that my friend pedro had the actual sheet music for the super mario bros. nintendo game theme song!!! i almost died. this is me trying really hard to play it without having ever looked at it before.