sexta-feira, 28 de agosto de 2009

RA D IOHEA_D + convidados especiais

Radiohead, Kraftwerk e Los Hermanos: Festival Just A Fest, em São Paulo, é experiência única para 35 mil pessoas

por Daniel Faria

Há algo de incomum – ou de “fucking special” - na experiência de ouvir mais de 30 mil pessoas cantando em uníssono versos surreais como “yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon” ou “there are two colours in my head”, de “Everything In Its Right Place”, a penúltima música do festival Just A Fest, em São Paulo. Seria realmente incomum caso os protagonistas da noite de domingo, os ingleses do Radiohead, já não primassem por uma obra ímpar na história da música mundial. Artístico, comercial, postura pública, não importa. São, em qualquer item citado, artistas únicos, que causaram delírio coletivo na Chácara do Jóquei no dia 22 de março de 2009.

A apresentação não causou maiores surpresas ou alarmes porque era exatamente o que maioria dos presentes aguardava. A palavra é: comoção.

Entrei na Chácara por volta das 18h30, mais de quatro horas após a abertura dos portões. O alto-falante tocava “So What”, de Miles Davis. Canções de Jeff Buckley e King Crimson também apareceram na discotecagem do DJ Maurício Valladares, que se mostrou antenado com o gosto dos membros do Radiohead.

O público já lotava praticamente toda a pista quando a banda carioca Los Hermanos, em volta especial para o Just A Fest após o anunciado “recesso por tempo determinado” do ano passado, inaugurou a edição paulista do festival com “Todo Carnaval Tem Seu Fim”, faixa do disco Bloco do Eu Sozinho, de 2001.

O repertório, aliás, usou-se quase todo de canções do Bloco e do terceiro álbum, Ventura, de 2003. Apresentação simpática e calorosa, com boa recepção do público em “Além Do Que Se Vê”, “Último Romance”, “O Vencedor” e no dueto de Marcelo Camelo e Rodrigo Amarante em “A Flor”, que fechou o setlist.

É complicado falar sobre a apresentação seguinte. Precursores da música eletrônica, talvez o grupo musical mais influente de todos os tempos depois dos Beatles, os alemães do Kraftwerk encontraram um público que se dividia em alguns poucos fanáticos que entoavam as letras mecânicas e mínimas com paradoxal paixão, alguns curiosos e uma grande maioria que desconhecia todo seu clássico repertório.

Os fãs foram presenciados com clássicos setentistas como “The Man-Machine”, “Autobahn” e “Radio-Activity”, o restante apreciou as convidativas imagens da vida urbana europeia pós-guerra e o visual robótico dos imóveis membros da banda. Talvez uma arena, como a Chácara do Jóquei, com público na faixa etária entre 20 e 25, não seja o local ideal para os veteranos alemães. Mas agradou mais do que desagradou.

Perto das 21h15, terminaram o show e iniciaram-se os preparativos do palco para a atração principal. A plateia, numerosa, aguardava com ansiedade e com os exageros típicos dos fãs. Ouvi uma menina de botas alemãs gritar que aquele era o “nosso Woodstock”, enquanto uma outra queria chuva para “que isso aqui vire o Glastonbury brasileiro”, referência – provável, acredito eu – a apresentação que o Radiohead fez no festival inglês em 1997, sob forte chuva e lama na altura dos joelhos, eleito pela revista inglesa Q como o melhor show de todos os tempos.

Não choveu, mas muita gente saiu dali achando ter visto o melhor show de suas vidas.

Carisma à inglesa
Por volta das 22h, o Radiohead finalmente entrou em contato com o público de São Paulo, depois de anos de especulações e de espera. Após show memorável no Rio, era a vez dos paulistas (e gaúchos, mineiros, paranaenses, capixabas, uruguaios…) conferirem o grupo inglês ao vivo pela primeira vez. In Rainbows, o disco-que-desmontou-a-estrutura-arcaica-das-grandes-gravadoras, foi apresentado na íntegra para uma plateia pronta a vibrar com qualquer nota vinda do palco.

Aliás, a interação banda-plateia era o ponto alto do festival. Logo após a terceira música, gritos para cada membro do grupo: Jonny Greenwood e Ed O’Brien, dois multi-instrumentistas brilhantes, o baixista Colin Greenwood, sorridente e convidativo, pulando o tempo todo, e o frio baterista Phil Selway, que arremessou suas baquetas ao público no fim do show.

E claro, a estrela maior. Com apenas 1,65m, inicialmente de jaqueta azul, barba por fazer e cabelos assimétricos, Thom Yorke sorriu para o público, fez brincadeiras vocais no intervalo das músicas, balançou descontroladamente a cabeça nas canções mais agitadas, subiu no piano, dançou histericamente, agradeceu aos brasileiros em português e foi ovacionado várias e várias vezes. Meninas (e alguns meninos) gritavam, deslumbradas: “lindo, lindo”.

Saíram e voltaram três vezes do palco. Após “Creep”, a música de encerramento, 35 mil pessoas deixaram a Chácara do Jóquei. A Revista Wave registrou cada momento da apresentação.

15 Step – Perfeita escolha como música de abertura, com loops de bateria e efeitos eletrônicos meio que a simular uma continuidade da apresentação do Kraftwerk.

There There – Primeiro grande momento da noite. Ed O’Brien e Jonny Greenwood deixam as guitarras de lado e assumem a percussão, enquanto Thom canta os versos acompanhado por uma multidão em êxtase.

The National Anthem – Tradição nos shows da banda inglesa, uma rádio local é sintonizada aleatoriamente para servir de introdução para esta incrível e irônica canção do álbum Kid A. A bizarra transmissão de uma rádio de Campinas assustou a muita gente.

All I Need – Várias pessoas choraram durante essa linda e triste balada, conduzida pelo piano de Jonny Greenwood.

Pyramid Song – Thom ao piano, numa interpretação belíssima. Jonny usa sua guitarra como um violino. A platéia silencia e permanece em transe durante toda a canção, para explodir em palmas no encerramento.

Karma Police – Um dos maiores clássicos da carreira do Radiohead e o segundo grande momento do show. “For a minute there”, 30 mil pessoas se perderam completamente.

Nude – Outra interpretação sublime de Thom para esta bela canção do último disco da banda. Casais se abraçavam e pessoas choravam enquanto a iluminação em tons azuis refletiam a beleza etérea da canção.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – Impressionante como a canção cresce ao vivo. O baterista Phil Selway conduz a levada inicial de forma mais bruta, enquanto o vocal de Thom cresce lentamente do suave e tímido para o épico e dilacerado.

The Gloaming – Experimentações eletrônicas, com samplers vocais retransmitidos ao vivo, sob um fundo verde quase alienígena, enquanto Thom tem seu primeiro “ataque epiléptico” da noite.

Talk Show Host – Presente para os fãs de longa data, a música fez parte da trilha sonora do filme Romeu e Julieta, de 1996. Como “Fake Plastic Trees”, foram as únicas canções da fase The Bends tocadas na noite.

Optimistic – Três guitarras altas, tocadas com violência, na música menos experimental do disco Kid A.

Faust Arp – Thom diz: “This is Jonny”. Jonny responde: “And this is Thom”. Momento acústico, com os dois empunhando violões límpidos nessa curta canção.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place – Sem dúvidas, a canção de In Rainbows que melhor obteve recepção do público e a que melhor funciona ao vivo, com seu fantástico crescendo e com a intensa participação dos cinco membros da banda, que imediatamente já emendou em Idioteque, talvez o momento de maior demonstração da sintonia entre o platéia e a banda e – na minha opinião – o ponto alto do show. Techno torto, weirdo, vibrante, “Idioteque” é a música que melhor representa o Radiohead pós-OK Computer.

Climbing Up The Walls – Novamente luzes verdes simulam um delírio extraterrestre no palco, enquanto a plateia entra mais uma vez em transe.

Exit Music (For A Film) – O transe é ainda mais hipnótico na canção mais asfixiante da noite. Todas as 35 mil pessoas em silêncio durante quase toda a música, enquanto Thom canta sozinho com seu violão. Outro momento fantástico.

Bodysnatchers –Três guitarras procurando o maior barulho possível nesta suja canção do último disco da banda. “I have no idea what I am talking about”, berra Thom, antes de fazer a primeira parada da noite.

Videotape – A banda volta ao palco aplaudindo a platéia, que aplaude de volta. Thom, ao piano, canta sua música preferida de In Rainbows.

Paranoid Android – A canção mais celebrada do Radiohead foi a responsável pelo momento de maior comoção da noite. Após o fim da música, o público começou a cantar trecho da terceira parte da canção (“rain down, oh come on rain down on me”, na canção, interpretada por Ed O’Brien) e Thom fez dueto com a multidão emocionada. Ainda com o violão na mão, já emendou de imediato Fake Plastic Trees, aguardada por todo mundo. Em todo canto, pessoas choravam emocionadas com o maior sucesso radiofônico da banda no Brasil.

Lucky – Após dois dos maiores hits da história do Radiohead, a banda não deixa o astral cair e prosseguem com outro clássico de OK Computer.

Reckoner – A estrutura audiovisual atinge seu ápice. Iluminação rosa, enquanto Thom exibe toda sua técnica vocal em falsetes emocionados e apaixonantes. Outra que provocou choros em toda a extensão da Chácara. Saem pela segunda vez do palco, extremamente aplaudidos.

House Of Cards – “I don’t wanna be your friend, I Just wanna be your lover”, pede Thom, numa das letras sobre relacionamentos mais belas da história da música popular. Luzes etéreas azuis refletem a leveza e sublimidade desta bela canção.

You And Whose Army – Mais um momento inesquecível, quando uma câmera filma em close os olhos desiguais de Thom, que responde com caretas megalomaníacas. A plateia vibra a cada movimento de seu ídolo.

Everything In Its Right Place – Supostamente a música de encerramento que, assim como “Idioteque”, promoveu uma espécie de festa eletrônica desconstruída, levando o enorme público a bater palmas e cantar versos irreais. Pela terceira vez, deixam o palco. Para muitos, o fim do show.

Creep – Voltam, sob pedido e aplausos, para executar a música que colocou o Radiohead no mundo da música. Banida do repertório por quase toda a turnê, a banda abriu exceção para os latino-americanos e encerraram a noite com seu single de maior sucesso em um repertório inesquecível para as 30 mil pessoas presentes.

http://www.revistawave.com

stephen malkmus

he's in this band, pavement

stephen malkmus tells all
interview by gail

chickfactor: I hear that you're the international karaoke king.
stephen: who told you that?
cf: it's all over the internet.
stephen: that I did karaoke?
cf: no, I'm lying. I interviewed janet for this issue, and she's a big karaoke nut.
stephen: yeah, she's into it. I would never normally do —I¹ve never done karaoke except for the day before yesterday in new york. my voice is totally gone. I tried to do changes [sings "ch-ch-ch-ch-changes’" in a high voice]. I'm antikaraoke. I don't like it myself. I'm telling you the truth. I don't like to sing. I hate singing. I only sing because no one else does in our band. I like playing guitar and writing songs.
cf: do you guys play golf?
stephen: no, scott does. I watch it somewhat. it's a sport for old rich men. young rich men.
cf: are you a gambling man?
stephen: I like to gamble. horses.
cf: how's your horse, speedy service?
stephen: he's in pasture right now, relaxing.
cf: did you ever say you were going to play that bowlie thing?
stephen: no. we never did.
cf: are you going to play the next one?
stephen: they invited us. I would except, quite frankly, I don't like traveling to england anymore.
cf: how come?
stephen: I'm just sick of traveling. I'd rather be at home. we've already been there too much for promotion. I wouldn't go there just to play bowlie weekender, no matter how great it was. we have to go to this glastonbury thing, I don't want to go at all. it's going to be totally stupid, just idiotic stupid shit. really irritates me. I don't care. I'm happy to tour in america. I like it a lot more than going there now. the first few times you go there, it¹s really fun. but now, it's just the same places, no one speaks your language. I'll be glad to go to Italy.
cf: where's pavement most famous?
stephen: here and san francisco. maybe I guess in england but everyone's famous in england. they have so much media, that to be famous in england is a really low accomplishment as far as I'm concerned. I don't care about the english. I like english people and I have a good time there but I really don't care about being a popular band in england. it's a small island. I¹d rather be popular here.
cf: what's in your rider?
stephen: beer, coke, vodka, a deli tray, batteries and a newspaper. those are the extravagant things.
cf: towels?
stephen: we've got lots of towels. I use them to blow my nose.
cf: what's your typical fan look like?
stephen: probably young and 65% male, 35% female. I don't know.
cf: college kids?
stephen: probably kind of like you but ten years younger, eight years younger.
cf: have you ever gotten a good present from a fan?
stephen: got this weird thing [a wallet type thing with hand embroidery], I still have it in my pocket. I don't know if it¹s a good present but it's kind of cryptic. it's probably from a young girl. nothing too special. lots of nice cds. all the japanese girls are giving me t-shirts or nice shirts and nice stuff. japanese people really are great gift givers.
cf: can you cook?
stephen: not really. I'd like to say I can but uh!
cf: do you have a specialty?
stephen: no, I can cook for myself. I can follow recipes. I'm not afraid to try things. I can make like ratatouille. I would like to. my mom's bought me all these skillets and they're really nice. it's a hint. she wants me to get married and settle down.
cf: has anyone ever written a song about you?
stephen: not that I know of. oh yes, some young kids have given me tapes: [sings] "steve malkmus! steve malkmus!"
cf: who's the biggest fashion plate in portland?
stephen: nobody on the rock scene, that's for sure. what a miserableŠ.
cf: everyone wears tevas and polarfleece?
stephen: people in bands just wear whatever, really drab, uninventive clothes. there are some people I guess that do kinda, maybe that luke hollywood guy, he dresses funny. I've really never seen anybody step out on a limb in any way there. it's an extremely repressed place.
cf: is it boring to live there?
stephen: yes, very. it's incredibly boring.
cf: it's pretty. I can see why you'd move there.
stephen: I don't mind that it's boring, but it's one of the dullest places I've ever been.
cf: where would you take someone if they came there for the day?
stephen: the bookstore, which I love. see, I like boring places, it's fine with me, but it's incredibly dull and people are not very outgoing. higgins is a nice northwestern style restaurant. I don't know where else really. good question. movie theater.
cf: what are you addicted to?
stephen: reading. cigarettes occasionally. that's about it. I have lots of other things that I love but I'm not addicted to them.
cf: who's the worst band that's opened for you?
stephen: tie between the verve and L7.
cf: got any tour horror stories?
stephen: we've been strip-searched and all that in sweden with gary.
cf: what was your first gig?
stephen: maybe d.o.a. if you don't count elton john or like neil diamond.
cf: that counts.
stephen: I probably fell asleep at that show.
cf: you were a big elton john fan?
stephen: yeah.
cf: me too. what's the worst job you've had?
stephen: one time I painted address numbers on curbs for pennies. really sucked.
cf: what do you read?
stephen: I like to read books exclusively. I don't read newspapers or magazines cause I like really to escape. books are a total escape. they don't make me depressed cause reading the newspaper makes me sad and afraid of dying or something. so I like to read books, novels.
cf: if you could pick someone to do a pavement tribute record, who would it be?
stephen: maybe the thinking fellers or boss hog.
cf: someone told me that david berman and [uva homie] rob chamberlain were like the deathrock milli vanilli in college.
stephen: yeah, sort of. they were kind of gothic.
cf: were you deathrock too?
stephen: no, I thought they were these scuzzy people that weren't nice because of the way they dressed. I was afraid of them.
cf: did you like living in charlottesville?
stephen: it was okay. other people had more fun than me. to me it just passed right by. I didn¹t really have much fun. I couldn’t wait to leave. that being said, I had a good enough time while I was there. but I was always thinking, god, I can't wait till the next stage of my life. high school was the same way. I totally expected to have no ties with anybody from that school when I left. then I met bob and david at the end of it. it was better then. my class sucked. they're a year younger than me, all those guys.
cf: what's your favorite bar?
stephen: I'm not a big bar fan in general. I only go cause other people go, to be social.
cf: rather hang out at someone's house?
stephen: anywhere but a bar. I hate bars.
cf: [gen x novelist] rob bingham's house?
stephen: I like that. I'll just stay in there all the time whenever I'm here. I'm totally happy to be there. I never go anywhere.
cf: what's the biggest misconception about you?
stephen: I have no idea because I don't know how people conceive me. maybe they think that we're...I don't know.
cf: smirky smartasses?
stephen: yeah, I guess so. we're no more smirky smartass than anyone else with a brain should be. a couple times we've been sort of cranky...right now I am relatively cranky and my voice is fucked...so maybe we come across as brats occasionally. we're really not. we just have a wide variety of feelings like everybody.
cf: do you like being a rock star?
stephen: I don't feel like a rock star at all. I don't get benefits.
cf: three nights sold out in new york city.
stephen: we get no benefits from it except we get to employ all these really nice people and hang out with them and our band and see some of our friends. other than that, I must say, I probably wouldn't be here right now if it was going to be a grinding tour like it was 8 years ago. so I'm glad that it's at this comfort level cause I wouldn't go on. I'd just do something else. cause it's just too hard. I'd still play music.
cf: do you read your press?
stephen: no, not at all. I used to, slanted and enchanted and crooked rain. sometimes local things in towns I¹ll just read the little thing. I feel bad now because some of the people I did interviews with are really nice and they'll be like, "did you read the piece?" and I had to say no. I haven't even seen any of our videos. I don't watch any of our videos since...rattled.
cf: you just don't care.
stephen: I care. I just don't want to know about it. it seems that media corrupts. I'd like to think that I don't know anything about what people are saying because it would bring me down more than up. it wouldn't make me feel better, it could only make me feel worse.
cf: even if they like it?
stephen: yeah, no, because I would just think, oh next time they're not going to. everything seems to be cyclical with our band. people make decisions about whether they like it or dislike it before they listen to it. I guess we have to deal with our history of our group, which I don't think we deal with. we're just like, we feel like making an album now and someone reviews it they're thinking about other things that got said about the band, you know, making a party line. by wowee zowee, I got tired of that. that being said, I'm glad we get a lot of press. I'm glad that [publicist] nils works hard to get it and my parents get to see it. it makes them proud of me and all my friends are like "whoa, you guys are really big," even if we're not. our press makes it seem like we're big.
cf: do you do product endorsements?
stephen: no, we've got the converse all the bands get but I don't wear them.
cf: what was your first guitar?
stephen: hollow-body wooden soft-string thing my grandma gave me.
cf: what was the first song you wrote? what was it called? what was it about?
stephen: it was called "psychopath," it was a punkrock song. I was like 14. [sings] "I am a psychopath! I'm fucking weird!" that's how it went. "better stay away man! they said they'd keep me in for 20 years or until my mind clears!" I can't remember the rest, but it's like "I will kill you" and stuff. it's like the adolescents or the offspring. I basically sounded like the offspring when I was 12.
cf: whose stagewear do you covet?
stephen: kim gordon seems to have a lot of nice designer dresses.
cf: and you wish you had them?
stephen: well, yeah, I'd like to have some nice ready-to-wear clothing, I just like to have it in my house rather than some other indie-rock guy's leather jacket.
cf: do you get writer's block?
stephen: yeah, for lyrics. songs, not really.
cf: do you carry a notebook around?
stephen: no, I'm not interested in writing down my thoughts. I thought I should. it might make the lyrics better. david does that. he's more of a word person. I'm not a word person. I just do it. I'm just getting by.
cf: you don't think your lyrics are good?
stephen: I think they're good just in relationship to other people's. they're good for what they are. I don't think they're particularly great. but they don't aim that high. they achieve what they are meant to achieve. I think the tone of voice is authentic and all that, but I don't think they're particularly deep or clever. there just wasn't that much time spent on them. I can't stand behind them too strongly.
cf: who's your favorite lyricist?
stephen: I say I like david [berman] a lot because he's my friend. neil young was good and captain beefheart. I like nonsense too. maybe john lennon was good. I don't care about lyrics at all, that's the problem. they've never done anything for me. I like some lines but I don't think about what they mean. I just sing along with them.
cf: what guitarists are you fond of?
stephen: I guess I like hendrix, the guy from the ground hogs, blues guys maybe. richard thompson is pretty cool. I don't really listen to solos, I kinda like rhythm guitars more, even though I play a lot of solos live. I'm trying to have something happen up there.
cf: what pop-culture phenomenon is annoying the hell out of you?
stephen: all television, any popular movie, all of it. it's all terrible. it's all embarrassingly...they're just out to get your money. it bothers me when things are all commercial. when that's their only reason for existing. I don't really like things like that. I know other people do, they can comment on how interesting it is. to me it just seems evil.
cf: do you listen to american bands?
stephen: I want to. but then I find myself somehow being influenced by english things and it really makes me sick. I don't want to allow them to have any more than they already have. they have so much impact on music and it's just not fair. and they're so snooty about it too. do you like english music?
cf: I'm afraid I do. I like tons of it.
stephen: I do too. it makes me mad. it's really frustrating. I want america to rise up.
cf: do you like to look at art in museums?
stephen: sometimes. I used to like to do it more.
cf: do you have any art in your house?
stephen: well, my grandmother was a great artist. I have mostly just her stuff.
cf: what kind of stuff did she do?
stephen: she does everything. sculptures, painting, cut-ups. she was a really talented woman. she was a great person. I probably don't have as much as I'd like. my apartment's too small.
cf: besides reading, what else do you like to do when you're not playing music?
stephen: I like to go hiking. go out in the nature for the day. I do go out to the golf driving range and hit golfballs but I don't like to play on the course. I like to buy books and play guitar and travel around and go see my friends and parents. they're really nice people too. I've got to call my dad this evening [father's day].
cf: do you think it's a good idea to meet your heroes?
stephen: um, I don't think it should really matter too much. obviously they might let you down somewhat if you expect them to be really charismatic or excited to meet you because they probably have their own problems.
cf: had any celebrity brushes lately?
stephen: not really. I don't have any celebrities I'd want to meet. there's no one that could star-strike me I don't think. courtney love had some kind of like I don't know what she was doing but she was like "look at me." that didn't effect me either. she was just trying to direct all the attention toward her. I've never been around any other stars like that. they're all just normal. CF

The Incredible Bulk

Glutes a bit droopy? Pectorals a little roly-poly? Unable to muster the energy to move the laundry off the exercise bike hiding in the corner, especially with the comfy indentation you've settled into on the couch and that "Top Chef" marathon about to start? We feel your (lack of muscle) pain. What you need is motivation, which we're happy to provide by breaking down the details of some of the big screen's buffest transformations. These actors have suffered -- a lot -- for their art, pushing themselves to their physical limits to be the fittest, most muscular thespians they can be. So, grab a Diet Coke, pop a Lean Cuisine in the microwave and dust off that ThighMaster as you check out our list of stars who have gotten memorably ripped for a role ...

Hugh Jackman, "Wolverine" (2009)

The Strapping Story: In this fourth installment of the "X-Men" series, the backstory of knuckle-knived, adamantium-coated mutant Wolverine (Jackman) is explored in all its violent, awe-inspiringly burly glory.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Jackman, who began training a full year before shooting began, would often begin his day at 4 a.m. with a breakfast of a whole chicken (tasty!) or egg whites and toast (no butter or jam and any other yummy toppings, of course). "[I] wiped out entire gene pools of chickens," he joked of his copious protein consumption. "To any vegetarians out there, I really apologize." The reigning Sexiest Man Alive ate every three hours and put away an estimated 4,500 calories a day. His disciplined diet was combined with explosive-impact weight training (he could bench press an impressive 300 to 320 pounds), all of which turned his body into a bulging mass of eye-popping pecs and bazooka-sized guns.

Linda Hamilton, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991)

The Strapping Story: John Connor (Edward Furlong) is the future savior of mankind. But at present he's a whiny, 12-year-old foster kid whose mom, Sarah Connor (Hamilton), has been committed to an asylum for spouting off about how the machines will eventually start a nuclear war that will kill billions. Enter future Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose original bad-guy terminator has been reprogrammed by grown-up Connor and sent back in time to protect his younger self from the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), a more advanced model that's also more murderously malleable thanks to its liquid metal core.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Talk about commitment to physical fitness. Sarah Connor didn't let being locked in the loony bin stop her from shaping up for Armageddon, as evidenced by the film's establishing shot of her doing pull-ups on an upturned bed frame, her mighty biceps glistening with sweat. To get into mesomorphic mama-bear-meets-warrior mode, Hamilton first had to say "hasta la vista" to her post-pregnancy pounds. Three months before shooting began, she started six-day-a-week, three-hour-a-day training sessions that had her sweating from running, swimming, biking, stair-climbing, lunges, weight lifting, judo, and some quality mini-trampoline time. She dropped a dozen pounds while adding enough muscle mass to pump a shotgun with one arm, a feat helped along by a rigid diet consisting of a lot of chicken and salads (no dressing, natch). "You couldn't stop me from working out," Hamilton told MTV News. "I remember I had a tiny piece of cheese one day and thought I had blown everything. It was literally the only cheese I had in nine months."

Christian Bale, "American Psycho" (2000)

The Strapping Story: Yuppie Wall Street exec Patrick Bateman (Bale) loves two things: looking good and feeling homicidal. "I believe in taking care of myself," says the sculpted serial killer, who outfits his tanning bed-bronzed Adonis body in meticulous designer suits. Like any good narcissist, Bateman knows how to accessorize. His kicky accoutrement of choice: a chain saw, the better for slicing and dicing his many victims.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: To achieve his character's physical perfection, Bale adopted what he described as an "incredibly boring" diet, shoveling down plenty of protein and vegetables and gorging on carbs such as bread, rice and pasta in order to build body mass. His exhausting workout regimen ranged from running and weight training to yoga, boxing and stretching. Not that the actor would recommend trying to duplicate Bateman's chiseled physique. "You can't have a body like that if you want to have a life," said Bale, "or any meaningful relationships."

Christian Bale, "Batman Begins" (2005)

The Strapping Story: By day, he's Bruce Wayne, hard-partying billion-heir playboy. By night, he's Batman, razor-blade-voiced superhero dedicated to protecting Gotham from the same criminal element that gunned down his parents in front of him when he was a boy.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Bale took on the role of the Caped Crusader just five months after dropping more than 60 pounds -- about a third of his body weight -- to play a cadaverous insomniac in "The Machinist." To fill out Batman's costume, the actor carbo-loaded back up to 180 pounds, but the process wasn't easy. When he landed the role, "I couldn't do a single push-up," admitted Bale, whose muscles had weakened from his horrifyingly emaciated state. With the help of a trainer and a rigid, protein-rich diet of chicken, tuna and steamed veggies, he eventually packed on another 40 pounds. And those push-ups? No longer a problem. As Bruce Wayne, he kicked off his day by falling straight to the floor and doing hundreds of them. "He has no superpowers," director Christopher Nolan said of the Dark Knight. "He's just an ordinary guy who does a lot of push-ups."

Demi Moore, "G.I. Jane" (1997)

The Strapping Story: Lt. Jordan O'Neill (Moore) is chosen to become the first woman to undergo Navy SEAL torture training, and she sets out to prove that she's just as tough as her male counterparts. How? By doing oodles of one-armed push-ups, shaving her head, and telling her merciless and slightly sadistic drill instructor (a mustachioed Viggo Mortensen), "Suck my d---."

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Demi prepared for the grueling on-screen physical trials (running obstacle courses, crawling through mud and sand, rolling oil drums, carrying life rafts, and enduring push-ups in the freezing surf) by going through her own real-life version of SEAL Hell Week. Her boot camp-inspired daily routine consisted of running, swimming, obstacle-course tests and endless push-ups, sit-ups and squats.

Brad Pitt, "Troy" (2004)

The Strapping Story: Based on the epic "Iliad" by Homer (the Greek one, not the rotund one who says "d'oh!" a lot), smitten Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) runs off with Spartan queen Helen (Diane Kruger), a married looker with a face that launched a thousand ships. War is declared, and Greece unleashes hell in the form of Achilles, a golden-skinned, god-bodied Greek warrior who probably could launch a thousand ships with his rippled torso and colossal deltoids.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Unlike Pitt's lean cut of bruised beefcake look from "Fight Club" five years before, his brawny bod in "Troy" is a gift straight from Mount Olympus. The A-lister reportedly requested a toga-dropping nude scene in the sprawling flick, which seems like a reasonable request considering he was feeling the burn six days a week for eight months leading up to the start of production. The star achieved Hellenic hunkiness with weights (a gym and trainer came with him on location to Malta and Mexico), yoga, running and sword training, along with balance training on a seesaw board, medicine ball hoisting and various one-legged exercises. In between, Brad refreshed with vitamin-rich protein shakes and daily massages.

Will Smith, "Ali" (2001)

The Strapping Story: Will floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee as he channels legendary boxing champ Muhammad Ali.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Smith went from slim to solid by gaining more than 30 pounds of muscle over the course of a year. He got ring-ready by kick-starting his day with a run before segueing into boxing practice and weight training (at his peak, he was able to bench press 300 pounds). By the time cameras rolled, he had completed his metamorphosis into a well-built, Ali-like wall of 220 pounds.

Taylor Lautner, "New Moon" (Nov. 20, 2009)

The Strapping Story: Bella (Kristen Stewart) loves sparkly, pretty-boy vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), but their epic love story hits a snag when one of his bloodsucking siblings tries to have her for lunch. Enter Jacob Black, who comforts a heartbroken Bella in between getting all furry with his werewolf brethren.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Lautner was this close to getting dropkicked from the sequel. Seems the pic's producers weren't convinced he could change from an unassuming teen in the first flick to an imposing lycan in the second. The actor, 17, set out to prove them wrong by adding about 20 pounds of muscle with intensive gym time and an unorthodox diet regimen. According to the New York Daily News, his trainer "forced" him to down shakes from McDonald's to up his poundage.

Gerard Butler, "300" (2006)

The Strapping Story: In this CGI-heavy adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., King Leonidas (Butler) leads 300 Spartan warriors sporting smooth, gym-toned chests and leather underpants into combat against the immense Persian army.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: "Only the hard and only the strong may call themselves Spartans." So says Leonidas, a line Butler apparently took to heart by training unremittingly for four months. Not only did he work with both a Venezuelan bodybuilder ("I wanted to look really strong," Butler told Men's Health), but he also got into character both physically and mentally with something called the 300-rep Spartan workout, which required him to do -- without a rest -- 50 pull-ups (25 at a time), 50 push-ups, 50 dead-lifts (135 pounds at a time), 50 jumps on a 24-inch box, 50 floor-wipers (lie on your back, lift a barbell and touch it on the left and right with your legs) and 50 "single-arm clean-and-presses using a 36-pound kettle bell." We have no idea what that last one is, but it sure sounds backbreaking. Toss in some tire flipping and gymnastics-inspired ring-training, and Butler ended up with a powerful body that was royally ripped.

Daniel Craig, "Casino Royale" (2006)

The Strapping Story: In the 21st installment of the franchise, James Bond (Craig) is resurrected as a thoroughly modern British spy, who is alternately violent, vulnerable, volatile and very, very sexy, especially when he's emerging from the ocean in teeny-tiny swimming trunks that just happen to match his intense, ice-blue eyes.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: It takes a lot of work to fill out 007's Speedo and tuxedo. For six months, Craig spent six days a week on an exhausting regimen that ranged from pull-ups and push-ups to squats and dips. He also spent a lot of time with a dumbbell in his hand, with endless lateral raises responsible for those sigh-worthy broad shoulders. But the tough training was necessary to play the lady-killer with a license to kill. "I had black eyes, I had cuts, I was bruised, I had muscle strains, and I took a lot of painkillers," said the actor. "But it was part of the job."

Angela Bassett, "What's Love Got to Do With It" (1993)

The Strapping Story: The rise, fall and rebirth of Tina Turner (Bassett), who, after years under the violent thumb of husband Ike, is able to find her inner strength and escape from his clutches.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: With her coconut-crushing biceps, Bassett's Tina looked like she could snap Ike's hand like a twig if he raised it against her in anger. It took the actress only a month to get into shape, which doesn't seem like long until you consider she spent all but four of those 30 days sweating up a storm in the gym.

Tobey Maguire, "Spider-Man" (2002)

The Strapping Story: Brainy but bullied high school student Peter Parker (Maguire) is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains superpowers overnight. But it takes a personal tragedy to turn him from a zero to hero, and he finally understands that "with great power comes great responsibility." Something else that comes with great power: cute redheads named Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst).

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: The big moment when Peter takes off his shirt and we see that his once-puny body is now bulging with muscles was accomplished through six months of six-day-a-week training sessions, some lasting up to four hours. The actor's intensive workouts focused on weight-lifting, running, cycling, yoga, gymnastics, and martial arts. Maguire, a vegetarian, also partnered with a nutritionist and ate four to six times a day to bulk up.

Robert Downey Jr., "Iron Man" (2008)

The Strapping Story: Debonair billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Downey) is captured and nearly killed by terrorists who want him to build one of his high-tech weapons of mass destruction. Instead, he creates a hulking suit of armor, escapes, and has an epiphany, namely, "I have more to offer the world than making things that blow up."

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Underneath that iron suit, Tony Stark was rocking some abs and buns of steel. Downey got buff for what would be his comeback role by undertaking strenuous daily workouts to pack on more than 20 pounds of muscle in five months. The catch? The Iron Man suit couldn't be altered, so the star had to be careful not to get too beefy. His trainer, Brad Bose, used various exercise machines (Jacob's Ladder, The Pineapple) to work every muscle group and build strength but not bulk, which fit in with his superpower-free character. "They wanted someone unique," explained Bose. "His character is an alcoholic and a womanizer, and he's an arms dealer. They didn't want a six-pack or bulging muscles, but they wanted to see that he had the power to forge iron."

Robert De Niro, "Cape Fear" (1991)

The Strapping Story: Ex-con Max Cady (De Niro) is a brutal psychotic determined to exact revenge on the attorney (Nick Nolte) who unsuccessfully defended him in a rape trial. His intimidation methods: terrifying brutality, scary religious tattoos that snake across his super-sinewy body, and a beyond-creepy attempt to seduce the lawyer's daughter (Juliette Lewis) with his finger-sucking technique.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Verisimilitude-devoted De Niro, who had previously put on 60 pounds for "Raging Bull" and 30 pounds for "The Untouchables," whittled his body fat down to just four percent to play Cady, gaining muscle with a combination of weight-lifting and a carb-crammed diet. "I feel if you're going to do certain parts," the actor told Time, "you really have to commit to them all the way to make them special."

Jake Gyllenhaal, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (2010)

The Strapping Story: Dastan (Gyllenhaal), a frequently shirtless and straggly haired sixth-century Persian prince, must stop an evil nobleman (Sir Ben Kingsley) from getting his hands on a device that can destroy the world.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Audiences won't get to see Gyllenhaal in his pumped-up state until May 2010, but, judging by the trailer, the wait will be worth it. "I guess I've gotten buff," he downplayed to "Entertainment Tonight" during filming. "There's a lot of acrobatics in the movie -- a lot of running up walls, and jumping on things and parkour [basically, running full-speed at an object and bouncing off it]. So it requires muscularity, but it requires a lot of aerobic ability, too." The actor's training reportedly included wearing a 20-pound jacket while running and doing uphill sprints followed by sit-ups upon reaching the top (we got winded just typing that).

Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler" (2008)

The Strapping Story: In his heyday, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Rourke) was a wrestling giant. He even had his own action figure. But two decades of in-the-ring abuse have left him damaged in body and mind, an "old, broken-down piece of meat," as he puts it (his flowing, bleach blond 'do, however, remains robust). But Ram still has some fight left in him, and he seeks redemption with one final bout.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Faced with his own moment of career redemption, Rourke was willing to do whatever it took to sell the role. That included performing many of his own stunts, from the rope dives to slicing open his much-altered face with a razor blade. Mickey went for maximum authenticity by spending months getting put through his paces with a former Israeli cage fighter and supplementing breakfast, lunch and dinner with four other meals, all of which helped him put on 46 pounds of muscle. As for whether he got deep enough into character to add heft with steroids or human growth hormones, he coyly told Men's Journal, "When I'm a wrestler, I behave like a wrestler."

Ryan Reynolds, "Blade: Trinity" (2004)

The Strapping Story: Dracula is back and evil as ever, and in order to stop him, the brooding, architecturally coiffed Blade (Wesley Snipes) reluctantly teams up with undead-hunting upstarts the Night Stalkers, which consists of the bow-and-arrow-wielding Abigail (a big bicepped Jessica Biel) and the 12-pack-sporting class clown Hannibal King (Reynolds), whose nonstop quips make an effective, if really annoying, weapon.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Before "Blade," Reynolds was better known for his frat boyish charms in "Van Wilder" than his body, and he made a beeline for the gym as soon as he landed the vampire flick. He filled out by gaining 25 pounds of muscle and got chiseled by getting down to just 3 percent body fat. Every day, he did a dizzying 500-1,000 sit-ups, along with weight training and a diet heavy on oatmeal, protein bars, chicken and eggs. "All told, it was about seven months of just every day living like a complete fool, living in the gym and eating a diet that is scientific basically," explained the actor, whose reshaped body probably didn't hurt when he was wooing now-wife Scarlett Johansson (or when he was preparing for "Wolverine"). "I put on a lot of weight. I ate every two hours. All day, every day. I'd even wake up in the middle of the night and eat," he said. "The biggest challenge was having to gain all that weight and spend all my time in the gym. That was something that I'd never done before. That nearly broke me."

John Travolta, "Staying Alive" (1983)

The Strapping Story: It's been six years since Tony Manero (Travolta) lit up the disco with his Bee Gees-accompanied booty-shaking and bell-bottomed white suit in "Saturday Night Fever." Now, he's trying to become a star on Broadway in the cheese-tastic musical "Satan's Alley," which requires him to wear a loincloth, headband and an entire bottle of baby oil.

The Hard-Bodied Breakdown: Travolta was able to carve his body into primo dancer condition thanks to the film's director, Sylvester Stallone, a guy who knows muscles. Sly helped devise a plan that had Travolta working out six days a week for nearly five months (14- and 16-hour gym days were not uncommon). The actor lost 20 pounds and gained a sleek, muscular build that he called "more contemporary and sexier."

10 ações para a retomada da bolsa



Os papéis que prometem ser os destaques da Bovespa nos próximos 12 meses, na opinião das 35 principais instituições financeiras e consultorias do mercado

É difícil encontrar algum investidor ou analista de mercado que não tenha se surpreendido com o desempenho da bolsa brasileira neste ano. Quase 50 ações, entre as mais negociadas do pregão, dobraram de preço desde janeiro -- o Índice Bovespa valorizou 50% nesse período. Após a alta, alguns papéis ficaram caros e deixaram de ser boas alternativas. Outros, embora tenham subido bastante, continuam promissores. Para ajudar o investidor a selecionar boas alternativas no mercado, EXAME fez dois levantamentos. Primeiro, perguntou a 35 profissionais das principais corretoras, gestoras de recursos e consultorias financeiras do país quais papéis eles recomendam para os próximos 12 meses. Depois, cruzou essas indicações com uma lista das ações mais baratas da Bovespa, feita pela consultoria financeira Economática com base em indicadores que medem a relação entre o lucro das empresas e o preço de suas ações na bolsa.

De forma geral, os setores que estão no topo do ranking dos especialistas são os de commodities (como mineração, petróleo e siderurgia) e consumo interno (como varejo e alimentos). "São dois segmentos em que as empresas brasileiras têm claras vantagens competitivas", diz Young Kim, chefe de investimentos no Brasil da gestora coreana Mirae, que tem 30 bilhões de dólares investidos nas bolsas de países emergentes. Como ocorre com qualquer aplicação em bolsa, todas as ações indicadas nesta reportagem têm riscos, que estão explicados nas tabelas ao lado. Mudanças de cenário econômico ou de regulação podem fazer uma ação hoje vista como interessante se tornar um mico. Por isso, o conselho dos especialistas é acompanhar de perto o portfólio e fazer mudanças sempre que necessário.

http://portalexame.abril.uol.com.br/

terça-feira, 25 de agosto de 2009

Argentina descriminaliza posse de maconha para uso pessoal

A Suprema Corte de Justiça da Argentina declarou inconstitucional, nesta terça-feira, a punição à posse de quantidades pequenas de maconha para consumo pessoal para maiores de idade, anunciou uma fonte do alto tribunal.

A sentença estabelece que "deve-se proteger a privacidade das pessoas adultas para decidir sobre sua conduta" em relação ao consumo de maconha, indica o texto divulgado à imprensa.

O tribunal alega ter se baseado na Constituição - segundo a qual "as ações privadas dos homens que não ofendem de nenhum modo a ordem e a moral pública, nem prejudicam um terceiro, estão apenas reservadas a Deus e isentas da autoridades dos magistrados".

A Corte se pronunciou em um caso no qual cinco jovens foram condenados por posse de maconha: eles foram presos no início de 2006 em uma operação policial, e cada um levava entre um e três cigarros de maconha nos bolsos.

A sentença, no entanto, adverte que "nenhuma permissão legal para consumir indiscriminadamente foi outorgada".

domingo, 23 de agosto de 2009

Rio concorre a título de melhor destino gay do mundo

O Rio de Janeiro disputa com outras cinco cidades o título de melhor destino gay do mundo, informou hoje uma empresa de promoção e divulgação turística brasileira.

A eleição é promovida pelo "Logo", um canal da "MTV" dirigido ao público homossexual, que anunciará a cidade ganhadora no dia 2 de novembro, durante a 10ª Conferência de Turismo Gay e Lésbico, em Boston, afirmou o Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau, em comunicado.

Além do Rio, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Londres, Montreal e Sydney foram indicadas ao título. A votação, que já está aberta ao público no site www.tripoutgaytravel.com/awards, vai até o dia 28 de setembro.

O site recomenda a altura da Rua Farme de Amoedo na praia de Ipanema, ponto de concentração de gays e lésbicas, além das discotecas Le Boy e La Girl, em Copacabana, e o Museu Carmen Miranda, no Flamengo, entre outros lugares muito frequentados por homossexuais.

O Cristo Redentor também é apontado como um local que os visitantes, heterossexuais ou homossexuais, não devem deixar de visitar.

"É indiscutível a importância e crescimento do turismo gay no mundo. O Rio tem todas as características para ser reconhecida como uma cidade 'gay friendly' (simpática aos gays)", disse Paulo Senise, superintendente do Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Segundo Senise, a nomeação do Rio de Janeiro "é uma aposta na diversidade, que rende muito dinheiro para a cidade, gera empregos, aumenta a arrecadação de impostos e a distribuição da renda."

Além do melhor destino, os organizadores escolherão os ganhadores em outras categorias do mundo gay, como o melhor evento anual, bar, rede hoteleira, operadora de turismo, hotel de luxo e companhia aérea.

quinta-feira, 20 de agosto de 2009

JJ PODE REALIZAR MISS PELADONA EM MOC

Pode ser brincadeira, mas os fofoqueiros de plantão do Café Galo dão como certa a realização, pelo polêmico jornalista João Jorge, o JJ, de concurso semelhante em Montes Claros. Seria o I Miss peladona da Província, a exemplo do que aconteceu em Praga. Difícil vai ser achar tantas coroas para desfilar no Quarteirão do Povo, devidamente maquiadas e penteadas por Kennedy e Rogério Moreno...

O quente é que não importa a idade ou a forma física. Nudistas de 36 a 81 anos, nada saradas e sem qualquer maquiagem e pose plastificada se enfrentaram na eleição de Miss peladona do ano, em Praga (República Tcheca).
Naturalmente, a beleza não estava em jogo. Mulheres desinibidas tiveram que participar de uma série de desafios: de “viração” de canecas de cerveja a dança com cachorro e desfile com chifre de veado. Também teve a clássica tarefa de equilíbrio de livro sobre a cabeça

Os juízes, todos homens, estavam obviamente nus. E participaram de um desafio de conga com as candidatas.

Tudo isso, juntamente com a dança das caboclinhas e das marujinhas, seria realizado no desfile sob a batuta do badalado cronista JJ.

The Spin Interview: Cat Power

The artist also known as Chan Marshall is ready to sing the blues away.

hat follows is an unabridged version of the Cat Power interview that appears in our December issue. Chan Marshall does not look troubled. On this late September afternoon, the fresh-faced and ponytailed 34-year-old singer, better known as Cat Power, perches on a windowsill outside Manhattan's Mercer Hotel, humming little ditties. Petting homely poodles. Whistling at attractive businessmen who pass by on the sidewalk. Having recently rereleased her gorgeous Memphis soul album, The Greatest, she's got a newly confident swagger and ten American dreams' worth of plans, including two upcoming albums, a book she wants to write about Africa, her role as the new face of Chanel jewelry, and an acting career she'd like to launch. Strange that this is the same Marshall who, after The Greatest debuted last January, canceled a tour and admitted herself to Miami's Mount Sinai Medical Center -- the result of a breakdown. Then again, maybe this is exactly how someone who survived psychiatric treatment should look. Happy. And lucky.

Spin: What was the first song you ever wrote?
Chan Marshall: In fourth grade, I lived by this tobacco field on the edge of a town called McLeansville, North Carolina, and I had this neighbor who had a piano. I'd only seen pianos in church or in my dad's apartment, and I was never allowed to touch instruments. I grew up in a house that had alcoholism problems, and there are different codes of living when you grow up like that. I didn't go to other people's houses much. So one day my neighbor's parents weren't home, and she was watching TV, so I snuck into her den and I played this song that's very similar to a song I have called "Norma Jean." Back then I called it "Windows." That song -- I felt like I had a secret, like I had made a life for myself.

You've said you've been drinking since you were very young. What started it?
People who drink habitually don't realize they're doing it, because it was part of their upbringing. Everybody from my immediate family to my grandparents to my great-grandparents -- there were always severe alcoholic and psychological problems. If your parents gave you fire to play with when you were two, you'd be standing in fire by the time you were an adult. [Before my most recent hospital stay] I was drinking from the time I woke up in the morning until the time I went to bed.

You recently spent a week at the hospital. What made you decide to check yourself in?
It wasn't for drinking -- this was for a reaction to drinking. This was the third time I've been in the hospital. I never really connected the dots. I never really thought, "When something bad happens, you go to the bar and turn off your emotions." I never realized that I'd gotten to the point of such depression. So that's why I can't drink anymore. I need to be able to face things.

It's been reported that you've had seven drinks in seven months. That's not sobriety.
Well, yeah, once a month. I call myself sober because if there's something special, like my friend's birthday in Miami, I'll have half a tablespoon [of vodka] with pineapple juice. That's what I call a drink.

Have you ever thought about going to Alcoholics Anonymous?
No. It wasn't that I was an alcoholic. It was that I was on tour for so long and that I lost the love of my life in 1998 to another woman. He was the first person who loved me who I loved. I never saw or heard from him again until last night. He has a girlfriend now -- his mom told me, she came to my show in Atlanta. That was the second time I checked myself into the hospital, when I found out that he was with somebody else. I mean, he was living with her. We were done and I didn't know about it.

How were you able to get out of the hospital that time?
I had to go on tour the next week. That's when the drinking started. I had a bottle of scotch backstage at that point. A year later, my rider had a bottle of scotch and a case of beer for every show.

How much were you drinking every day at your worst?
Well, it was always a fifth of Scotch. And then it was a fifth of Scotch and two Xanax. But that was normal. I mean, fuck man, there are 21-year-olds who go to NYU who probably drink like that five nights a week.

What was happening in your life before you went to the hospital this time?
I had holed up in this apartment in Miami for a full year and didn't have any contact with people. My phone was always on silent. Some weeks it was just turned off. I really wanted to die. When you're that depressed, it's not even "depressed" anymore. You've just given up. There's nothing inside you that's good.

How did you finally get out of the house?
My friend Susanna flew down to Miami from New York. I hadn't talked to her in about a year. She just had a bad feeling. She kept asking people, "Have you talked to Chan?" Susanna got there and I was so happy to see her because I'd been...well, you know, my grandmother was very religious growing up and she taught me from a very young age that Satan is bad and God is good. But you tell a child about Satan and demons and saints and angels, and with a child's imagination, it just becomes a part of your mind. As an adult, you have to really remember that it's all just folk tales. Like werewolves, that kind of thing. How did you react when she told you that you were going to the hospital?
I didn't understand why we were going. I thought she wasn't feeling well. She was crying in the cab, holding my hand. And I was thinking, "God, she must be in so much pain."

What happened while you were there?
Well, six months earlier I had this dream about Johnny Cash. He slid into a booth beside me and he was like, "June and I, we've birthed a new child. And its name is Acanthus." Anyway, I was filled with this really happy feeling of exultation. I just felt like I'd been touched, you know? Like I wasn't alone. So I was in this store one day and there was this ring there with this leaf on it. I asked the woman what the leaf was and she said it was acanthus. So I was like, cool, I'll take it. When Susanna came, she took my ring because she was like, "They probably aren't going to [let you take it into the hospital]."

The doctor said I had a psychotic break because I was suffering severe, massive depression and overwhelming stress. I basically lay in bed for the first three days and refused to talk or eat or open my eyes. If someone came around, I would try to blink really quickly. I wasn't looking at people because I didn't want to take their pills. I was afraid that I would never leave that place. I was afraid that I would be drugged and I would never be able to say, Help! Susanna was holding my hand. She said, "Chan, I have to leave, but I'm thinking about you and I'm literally twenty blocks from you. I'm going to come see you tomorrow and everything's gonna be fine."

On the fourth day, I woke up and I was like, "Shit, Susanna is not coming back. Maybe Susanna is just part of your split personality. Maybe everyone's part of your split personality. Maybe your mom doesn't exist. Maybe you aren't you. Maybe you're really 75 years old and you're homeless with cancer and you're on a respirator, and when you open your eyes, you're going to see that you're dying." So I got out of bed and went right up to the mirror. At this point, I was raw. I hadn't seen myself. I hadn't brushed my hair. I wondered [if I looked in the mirror], would it be me? And I looked. And I looked like me. Like the inside of me. Like a little kid. When I saw my face, all I wanted to do was protect that person. And I realized, "What are you doing here?"

So I was like, "What would a sane person do?" I brushed my teeth and I combed my hair. Susanna had brought a few cosmetics and new fresh clothes, so I put them on and I felt clean. I had not gone outside my room yet. But I went out the door and I went down the hall, where all the people had gathered to watch TV. I had heard everyone outside my door saying their names and asking for their medication. So I acted like everyone else, like I was supposed to act. I went up to the counter and I was like, "I think I'm supposed to ask for medication?" And that was it. That was the day.

On the fifth day, it was easier. And on the sixth day the doctor came in and said, "How are you today Chan?" And I'd say, "I'm fine." So the doctor says, "Chan, are you having any strange thoughts?" And I was like, "On a scale of one to ten, being in here, I'm at a four. But definitely not at a ten, like I was when I first came in here." And he was like, "Okay, are you hearing voices?" And I was like, "No, not at all. Just my voice."

Had you been hearing voices before you went to the hospital?
I wasn't hearing voices. I was having visions.

What kind of visions?
My window got blown out, so there was a sheet of wood over it. There were little dark knots on the wood and it looked like the desert. I could hear the wind behind it -- whooooooo -- blowing across the desert. And where those knots were, the desert was exposing this huge, massive civilization. All these super ornate, shiny, pointy buildings. It was this Arabic type of place, like the Sahara 5000 years ago. These other knots started moving. It was very hallucinatory. All that sand was representative of time. I felt like I was going back in time.

It's embarrassing to admit things like this. What I thought was a vision was obviously just my mind. And since I hadn't slept in seven days, my mind was out the window.

How do you feel now?
Oh man, I'm just so happy to be alive. I've always been like that when I was little. I feel lucky. I feel blessed. So grateful and thankful to myself that I didn't fall for any tricks and I didn't fuck up and I didn't become a junkie and I didn't jump out a window and I didn't fall prey to those traps because I had self-preservation. I don't come from money or an educated family background or any sort of supportive family life, so all of my choices are made on my own. This was the first time that I ever let myself be taken care of against my will. That's such a weird concept.

How do you respond to people who say you're intentionally cultivating a "crazy artist" mythology around yourself?
It makes me laugh. I wish that I could be that conniving!

You have a reputation for unusual behavior during live shows: starting and stopping songs, talking as if you're in a trance, apologizing repeatedly. Where does that come from?
Say you're typing a poem and there's something wrong with the E key -- it looks like an R or a Q. And you're like, fuck, and you pull the paper out. That's what playing is like for me. There's just something wrong -- the sound, the lights, someone looking at me, maybe the piano's out of tune -- that's why I stop and start. I want to make it perfect. It's not like I'm trying to torture people. I don't care if I've got a booger up my nose or my head's on fire; it's not about me. It's about the song.

Do you have stage fright?
It makes my heart beat faster just thinking about it -- all the people and the lights. I don't appear shy, but I'm a very sensitive person.

Do you have to play live? Is that part of your contract?
No not at all. I wanted to.

You enjoy playing live? You don't always seem to enjoy it.
That's the thing about me. People think, Oh she's crazy -- she doesn't like to play. But that's not it. It's like tapping into some communal vein. There's always one person who talks to you after you go through this physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological experience. It's a dualship, a communication between the listener and me, even though you're not talking to each other or looking at each other, there's this space that starts living. This space in the universe that we all share, and it opens up, and then we forget we're in a bar. It's like looking at a painting or watching a horse run. It's that thing that keeps us liking life.

You recorded The Greatest in Memphis. What was it like to work with soul legends like Mabon "Teenie" Hodges?
The recording process was intense -- you know, white girl from Georgia asking these legendary musicians if they'd be interested in recording "Try Me," by James Brown. Teenie would be like, "Now what key is the song in?" And I'd be like, "I don't know anything about keys." And he'd be like, "Okay, just play it." I'd play and he'd mark down the Nashville numbers system -- that's the way poor people learn to play because [takes on a deep-South accent] they don't have no con-serrr-va-tory. And Teenie would be like, "See that note you played? That's the key. It's always gonna come back to that note."

Teenie taught you music theory?
Yeah, but I didn't really need to know any of that. [Laughs] You know the dude in Africa with a wash bin? He doesn't need to know. That Chinese guy in the subway with the instrument with one string? Do you think he's studying music theory?

Your next record will be another covers album. Whose songs will you be doing?
Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Cole Porter. I'm going to record it in Mexico City in January, release it next summer. Then I'll have time to audition for Saturday Night Live.

You want to join the cast of Saturday Night Live?
Yeah. I met Molly Shannon when I was playing a show in Brooklyn. I didn't know what to say, so I said [imitates Shannon's voice from her SNL cheerleader skit], "I love it! I love it!" She didn't laugh. I think she was embarrassed. But four years later, I saw her again and told her this story about my friends getting handcuffed, and Molly was laughing. She was like, "Oh my God, have you ever thought about acting?" So I might ask her to forward my audition tape.

When you look at all the albums you've made over the past decade, what's the most significant change you hear musically?
The biggest change is probably something you can't hear on the albums -- it's something that happens live. When I was six, I was singing [Kenny Rogers'] "The Gambler" onto a cassette for my grandmother. Now when I'm onstage, I'm singing the same way, singing from happiness. My songs always sounded triumphant to me, but they never sounded triumphant to other people because I was always insecure about my abilities. I caught so much bullshit from sound guys for years. With The Greatest, this is the first time I've ever been able to play live and have it sound like it did on the album. This Memphis group is the first band I've recorded with that has practiced. Having all the songs in key has liberated my singing for the first time.

Can you tell me about Sun, the album that's due after your next covers album?
It will come out in spring of 2008. I'm producing it. One song is called "Leopard," I used to sing it when I was 26. There's another song, a spiritual song called "Mountaintops." And there's a really sweet song called "Funny Things" that's like a little kid's tap-dance song about having special secret thoughts: "Funny things in your dreams/Can you whisper talk to me?" And then there's "Silent Machine," which I actually wrote a long time ago. There's another song called "Oh Time." It's about my ex and it's about forgiveness. My friend Susanna always cries when I play it.

How does it go?
"A ticket to Atlanta / Family knows another now / A ticket from Atlanta / Family knows, another shot down / You win / I give in / I forgive you / Oh time, the great healer / Oh time, the great healer."

That's beautiful.
You know Cat Power -- she tends to write pretty personal songs. The myth! The mystery! [Laughs] That's why I've always done interviews: to show there's no mystery at all. When I was 21, I wanted to do interviews because I wanted to save the world. I still do. But half the time I'm still trying to save myself first.

http://www.spinmag.com/

Vantagem de Serra vai de 13 pontos no Nordeste a 40 em SP

A menor diferença entre o tucano José Serra e a petista Dilma Rousseff, de acordo com a nova pesquisa Datafolha, ocorre entre os eleitores dos Estados das regiões Nordeste, Norte e Centro-Oeste.

Kennedy Alencar: Pesquisa preocupa Serra e Dilma
Marina Silva faz "retiro" para decidir sobre PV
Josias: "Oposição não tem discurso", diz Lula

Em compensação, no Estado de São Paulo, governado por Serra, o levantamento aponta ampla vantagem do pré-candidato do PSDB a presidente.

No Nordeste, onde Serra fez diversas incursões recentemente, ele tem 31% das intenções de voto contra 18% de Dilma --13 pontos de diferença, a mesma vantagem que tem nas regiões Norte/Centro-Oeste.

Em suas análises eleitorais, a direção petista avalia que Dilma tem potencial para encostar em Serra e até superá-lo no Nordeste, onde Lula foi bem na eleição de 2006 --teve 77% dos votos válidos no segundo turno contra o então candidato do PSDB, Geraldo Alckmin.

Mas o próprio PT reconhece que a situação dela é preocupante em São Paulo e irá incrementar sua agenda no Estado.

Serra tem 51% das intenções contra apenas 11% da petista entre os paulistas. Ciro Gomes (PSB), que também cogita concorrer ao governo de São Paulo, está empatado tecnicamente com Dilma. Ele alcança 12%.

Os tucanos avaliam que, se Serra abrir sobre Dilma uma diferença de 4 milhões de votos no Estado, ele amplia ainda mais sua chance de se tornar o próximo presidente. O cálculo leva em conta o fato de o governador ser bem conhecido nas demais regiões, pois já foi ministro da Saúde e disputou a eleição presidencial de 2002.

Reservadamente, os petistas paulistas compartilham o raciocínio, mas afirmam que Dilma está longe de seu teto em São Paulo. Na semana passada, a ministra participou de uma grande festa da militância do PT na capital do Estado.

Até o final do ano, a ministra deverá intensificar sua agenda entre os paulistas vistoriando obras do PAC (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento).

Quando o candidato tucano é o governador mineiro Aécio Neves, o melhor desempenho do PSDB ocorre na região Sudeste, onde ele chega a atingir 31%. Mas, em São Paulo, Aécio empata com Dilma em 14% no principal cenário para ele. Ciro tem 24%.

AMERICANAS USAM BRINQUEDOS PARA MOSTRAR OS SEIOS



A ousadia de algumas visitantes da Disney World acabou trazendo sérios problemas para a gigante do entretenimento dos EUA, que atrai crianças do mundo inteiro. Os brinquedos Splash Mountain e The Tower of Terror são as "praias" para que muitas adolescentes e até mesmo adultas pratiquem o topless com generosas doses de adrenalina. O problema, na verdade, começou há cerca de dez anos, quando a empresa contratou um esquadrão para monitorar fotos. Quando a situação parecia estar totalmente controlada, a equipe fiscalizadora foi liberada. Mas, recentemente, a Disney readmitiu os fiscais de seios desnudos, depois que viu a prática voltar a decolar.
O problema é que o parque tira várias fotos de pessoas nos brinquedos, para que virem souvenirs. As imagens são então exibidas, quase em tempo real, em grandes telas na saída das atrações, às quais todos os visitantes - incluindo milhares de crianças - têm acesso. Os "agentes da moralidade" estão orientados a apagar imediatamente qualquer registro embaraçoso. Mas a picardia não para...

Jovens mineiros criam rede social para cinéfilos

Que as redes sociais são um sucesso no Brasil, todo mundo já sabe. Mas uma dupla do interior de Minas Gerais decidiu inovar e criar uma rede especialmente dedicada aos cinéfilos. O site Filmow (http://filmow.com/) foi lançado em abril e, em apenas quatro meses, já conquistou mais de 4 mil usuários.

Os próprios idealizadores da rede, Alisson Patrício, 20 anos, e Thais de Lima, 17 anos, se surpreenderam com o retorno positivo dos internautas e agora se dedicam a melhorar o site, investindo em novas ferramentas capazes de despertar cada vez mais o interesse dos aficcionados por filmes. "A gente achou que o pessoal ia gostar, mas não tão rápido", brincou Patrício.

O jovem mineiro contou ao Terra que a ideia surgiu inspirada no Skoob, uma rede social dedicada a livros. Ele e a amiga Thais achavam que faltava um site voltado para filmes. Acabaram descobrindo a existência de versões semelhantes em inglês, mas, segundo Patrício, só quando a produção já estava em andamento.

Para integrar a rede é simples. Basta fazer o cadastro no site informando alguns dados pessoais e em seguida o internauta terá sua página pessoal, onde pode listar os filmes que já viu, pretende ver, ou que não tem o menor interesse. De acordo com Patrício, a comunidade foi feita para cinéfilos se conhecerem, trocarem dicas de filmes e organizarem suas próprias listas.

Os comentários sobre cada produção também são feitos pelos usuários. A Thais cabe revisar os textos e eliminar possíveis repetições de filmes. Patrício é o responsável pela programação, e garante que os cinéfilos podem aguardar as novidades preparadas por ele. "Tem muita coisa para fazer no site ainda", destacou.

Uma das ferramentas em desenvolvimento mostrará os usuários com gostos semelhantes, facilitando a interação entre eles. Atualmente, os cadastrados no site já podem se comunicar entre si, deixando recados em suas páginas.

O interesse por deixar o site cada vez mais atrativo visa também atrair futuros anunciantes. A dupla de Mariana, cidadezinha próxima a Ouro Preto, está só começando, mas o número siginificativo de usuários - 4 mil - e comentários - mais de 37 mil - os fazem planejar uma vida longa e rentável para o Filmow.

Utilidade
Patrício explica que a lista de filmes que o usuário está interessado em ver é muito útil na hora de ir ao cinema ou à locadora. Tem sempre aquele filme que esquecemos, e a lista do Filmow ajuda a lembrar. Além disso, as críticas de outros usuários acabam despertando a atenção por produções e servem como indicação. Os internautas têm ainda ao seu dispor no Filmow uma lista dos filmes em cartaz, dos que acabaram de ser lançados em DVD e das produções que devem chegar à telona em breve.

Artistas
Além das dicas de filmes, o Filmow tem uma rede de artistas cadastrados, onde os fãs podem saber um pouco mais sobre seus ídolos e os filmes dos quais participaram. A página dedicada aos artistas é uma das que devem receber mais investimento dos criadores do site, e em breve.

quarta-feira, 19 de agosto de 2009

Rita Cadillac: “Fico chocada com a baixaria”

Rita Cadillac, mesmo quando sorri, tem os olhos tristes. Aos 54 anos de idade e mais de 30 de rebolado, a dançarina que se auto-define como a “mais famosa bunda do Brasil”, segue trabalhando duro. Na última sexta-feira, ainda com dores nos joelhos, conseqüência do desfile pela X-9 paulistana, dançou sua velha dança para uma delirante platéia de baladeiros paulistanos.

O show de Rita, no clube Caravaggio, região central de São Paulo, foi o auge da noite Trash 80’s, que reproduziu, com bacalhau e abacaxi de cartolina, o Cassino do Chacrinha. Tudo ali era intencionalmente trash. Rita também? “Eu? Eu já tô me acomodando na aposentadoria. Levo tudo isso na brincadeira.”

O show da ex-chacrete é quase uma viagem no túnel do tempo. Ao som de velhos hits, ela empina o traseiro, dá uns rodopios, revira os olhos, manda uns beijos… E pronto. “Ela é quase um revival das pin-up girls dos anos 50. É um pouco a pré-história da nossa televisão”, acerta o cineasta Toni Venturi, autor do documentário A Lady do Povo, que entrará em cartaz nos cinemas em 8 de maio.

Assista ao trailer inédito de “Rita Cadillac, A Lady do Povo”

Falar com Rita Cadillac é como entrar no mundo televisivo e no circo das celebridades pela porta dos fundos. É encontrar, sem máscara, um personagem que o Brasil, há décadas, aplaude, apedreja, ironiza, imita, deseja e despreza. Ela foi chacrete, musa em Serra Pelada e no Carandiru, fez filmes pornôs e chegou a se apresentar em seis forrós num só dia. Mas Rita, olhar melancólico e sorriso contido, está certa de que o pior já passou. Hoje, sente-se cult até.

“Esse documentário foi a coisa mais importante da minha vida. Quando o Toni veio falar comigo, juro que achei que era uma pegadinha. O filme mostra a Rita de Cássia, mostra a pessoa que eu sou e nunca ninguém viu”, diz, orgulhosa. Na era da revista Caras e do Big Brother, Rita Cadillac é, a um só tempo, o brega que ninguém quer ser e é a “quase celebridade” que tanta gente tenta ser.

Em uma hora de entrevista no camarim do Caravaggio, Rita – numa versão mais “de Cássia” que “Cadillac” – tenta mostrar que, como disse Rita Lee, é “uma bunda que pensa”. Ela, no fundo, parece guardar muito da menina pobre, simples e desprovida de especiais aptidões que, quando deu por si, tinha sido colocada no centro do circo midiático. Atravessou a vida em busca da telinha perdida.

Antes de dar início à conversa, ela senta-se num banco alto e, pra escapar das lâminas da roupa preta, que “penicam”, levanta o vestido. Pede um energético pra ficar acordada, conta que passou o dia fazendo compras no Brás e, ao ser perguntada sobre a relação com jornalistas, demarca terreno: “Tem hora que eu percebo que o jornalista quer tirar um sarro. Mas não sou idiota. Percebo o tom. Quando vejo que querem gozar de mim, fico monossilábica, fecho a cara.”

Leia, a seguir, trechos da conversa

NASCE UMA CHACRETE

“Eu deixei criarem essa personagem, então não posso me arrepender. Quando eu era menina, tinha vergonha. Tudo que eu botava, a bunda aparecia demais. Aí, quando entrei no Chacrinha, pensei que tinha que fazer uma besteira qualquer pra me diferenciar. O que eu tinha pra mostrar? A bunda. Falei: ‘vou ser a gostosa do programa’. Vivo até hoje disso.”

“Me aconteceu, no metrô, de perguntarem se alguém já me disse que eu era parecida com a Rita Cadillac. Quando digo que sou a própria, olham pra minha bunda pra ver se sou mesmo.”

A RITA DE CÁSSIA
“O documentário mostra uma pessoa que ninguém conhece. Só conhecem a pessoa que eu viro quando estou no palco. Fico ansiosa de pensar no lançamento. Um filme assim passa em sala de arte, né? É um público bem diferente do público que eu tive a vida inteira.”

A FASE DOS PORNÔS

“Eu fiz porque precisava do dinheiro. Precisava mesmo. Mas fui pra casa e falei pra mim: ‘Acabou a Rita’. Eu achava que quando o filme fosse lançado eu nunca mais ia ter coragem de sair de casa. Mas, você vê, o Brasil é muito louco. Aconteceu o contrário. Eu comecei a receber mais convites. A partir dali, comecei a me sentir uma artista. Até a Globo – a Vênus platinada, né? – hoje me convida pra umas coisas.


A VERGONHA DA PROSTITUIÇÃO
No documentário A Lady do Povo, Rita chora ao revelar que se prostituiu, aos 17 anos. Até agora, ao relembrar desse momento, enrijece a expressão. Mas diz que, enfim, se sente livre do segredo que carregou por toda a vida.
“Falar disso me reestruturou como pessoa. Foi uma coisa que me machucou tanto que a vida inteira eu escondi isso. Eu apaguei isso, queria fingir que não aconteceu. É uma coisa péssima, inesquecível. O Toni foi meio psicólogo. E tirou de mim uma coisa muito forte. Na pré-estréia do filme, no Cine Odeon, no Festival do Rio, eu passei o maior nervoso da minha vida. Quando acabou a sessão eu escondi a cara, me encolhi que nem um avestruz. Aí fui super aplaudida. E agora falo disso sem medo.”

Veja o diretor Toni Venturi descrevendo o momento em que Rita chora no filme


A BAIXARIA NA TEVÊ
“Agora as dançarinas são adornos de um programa. A gente ficava lá rebolando, mas tinha alguma identidade. Hoje esses programas são a porta de entrada pra uma carreira, que na época nem existia direito. Hoje, tem mãe que diz ‘filhinha, dança a dancinha da garrafa’ e leva a criança pra tevê.”

“A tevê não era tão vulgar como é hoje. Não era mesmo. Tá muito apelativo. No outro dia me falaram de não sei quem que passa o cartão magnético na bunda da outra. Eu posso ter sido chamada de tudo que é nome, mas isso eu não faria. Gente! Você fica meio assim, né? Aí tem mulher melancia, mulher framboesa. Amanhã, vem a mulher jaca. É a geração fruta. Acho que a gente passou do limite do que sempre foi meio vulgar. Eu me choco.”

Antes de seguir para o show, Rita brinca com as “chacretes” que vão acompanhá-la no palco. Algumas das meninas pedem para tirar foto com esse símbolo um tanto demodè da nossa cultura pop. “Eu sempre digo pra elas que o importante, nessa profissão, é a honestidade. Eu nunca menti sobre quem sou. Sou uma dançarina que inventou o personagem da bunda na hora certa.” E no país certo também.

http://anapaulasousa.blog.terra.com.br/

UOL lança simulador de investimento na Bolsa

O UOL lançou nesta quinta-feira, em parceria com a BM&FBovespa (Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros), o simulador de investimentos no mercado de ações UOL Invest.

O produto permite que os internautas simulem a compra e venda de ações, montando sua carteira exatamente como se estivessem operando na Bovespa, com um crédito fictício inicial de R$ 200 mil. O participante tem acesso, ainda, a notícias sobre o mercado financeiro e às cotações dos papéis listados na Bolsa.

Conheça o simulador de investimento na Bolsa UOL Invest
BB passa Itaú Unibanco e volta a ser o maior banco do país
Bovespa tenta recuperação, diz "Financial Times"
Após 4 trimestres, França e Alemanha voltam a crescer

Para o diretor presidente da BM&FBovespa, Edemir Pinto, trata-se de "um acontecimento de grande relevância para a formação de novos investidores".

"A internet é um poderoso instrumento para democratizar o acesso ao conhecimento dos mercados. Quanto maior a participação dos cidadãos na Bolsa, maior será a eficiência das companhias aqui listadas", afirmou Pinto.

A diretora de Conteúdo do UOL, Márion Strecker, vê a nova ferramenta como uma "confluência da informação e do entretenimento". "É extremamente lúdico, mas baseado em informações verdadeiras, o que faz com que as pessoas aprendam com facilidade", diz.

Novo público
"O mercado de ações vem crescendo e passou a atrair a atenção de um público cada vez mais heterogêneo. O UOL Invest foi lançado justamente para que esse público pudesse tomar contato com a realidade do mercado", conta Marcelo Epstejn, diretor-geral do UOL.

O UOL Invest foi desenvolvido sobre a plataforma do Folha Invest, da "Folha de S.Paulo". O objetivo da nova ferramenta é adaptar o produto aos padrões do UOL e "levar a um público maior, inclusive a quem hoje não tem familiaridade com o mercado de ações", afirma Rodrigo Flores, gerente geral de Notícias do UOL.

"Quem negocia ações regularmente vai encontrar lá todas as ferramentas que existem no mercado real. Quem nunca participou do mercado acionário terá a chance de aprender e tirar dúvidas", diz Flores. "O UOL Invest fortalece e consolida a liderança do UOL Economia em notícias financeiras no Brasil", acrescenta.

Prêmios
Os participantes do UOL Invest podem se inscrever gratuitamente e concorrerão a prêmios.

Dependendo do sucesso de seus investimentos no simulador, o internauta do UOL Invest pode ganhar um pacote turístico para um resort em território nacional com acompanhante, um notebook, curso relacionado ao mercado de ações e brindes como livros, camisetas e bonés.

http://economia.uol.com.br/

20 best pavement songs ever

The kings of indie rock, the best band ever from Stockton, California, and one of my favorite bands of all time: Pavement. They were an incredible band, with a range (life) that stretched between power-pop, slow indie jamz and even (in their later, forgettable years) jam band-age. Their first three albums are musts: Slanted & Enchanted, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain and Wowee Zowee. But some of their best songs were often relegated to B-sides, now collected on the reissued versions of those three albums, and so, for many years, the crème de la crème was somewhat scattered.

To help you navigate the many, many songs they have recorded and released, we present to you the twenty greatest Pavement songs ever. Here’s the complete list, all in one spot.

find other videos on youtube

20 “She Believes” | Westing (By Musket and Sextant)

Early recording, much of the song pretty much a throwaway, but it’s that Daydream Nation chorus, “but she believes,” Malkmus sings razor-thin, and the guitar pensive and hoping that makes the song so great. It totally falls apart (purposely) in the last 40 seconds — maybe the boys weren’t comfortable yet sounding purty? — but the rest of the song more than makes up for it.

19 “We Dance” | Wowee Zowee

Somewhere, sometime, someone from Pavement said something about how there was no set order to Wowee Zowee, that the random button on your CD player (’member those?) was just as good a sequencing. There’s some truth to that, but it’s also true that “We Dance” is a spectacular opening song, a statement of purpose, a rock critic might say, for WZ itself: content to stay in place, no direction forward, relaxed and stoned. Oh and of course that opening lyric, so prescient from a white-dudes-with-guitars-indie-band in a particularly socially aware moment: “There is no/ Castration fear” as water starts pouring in the background. Funny stuff!

18 “In the Mouth of a Desert” | Slanted & Enchanted

The first in a long line of Pavement almost-ballads, those mid-tempo numbers where Malkmus sounds bored, the band sounds tinny and uninterested, the whole reason why they got stuck with that slacker tab and seemed determined to live up to it. They are also, pretty much across the board, the best Pavement songs. So maybe there’s something to that after all.

Here’s the band in 1992 at the Reading Festival playing “Desert:” (vídeo indisponível)

17 “Shady Lane” | Brighten the Corners

So I have a really, really hard time with Pavement post-Pacific Trim. Brighten the Corners totally bummed me out, and Terror Twilight I just couldn’t deal with at all. Pavement got so technical, sounding almost like Steely Dan with how orchestrated the songs suddenly were, as if they were playing connect-the-dots with some sheet music that fell out of Spiral Stairs’ knapsack. Still, I have to give it up for “Shady Lane,” which is a very sweet song, goofy in the right places and it’s really, really damn hard not to coo along with Malk, “Dutch! Dutch! Dutch!”

Here be the music video: (vídeo indisponível)

16 “Greenlander” | Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe and Redux

Originally included on the Born to Choose comp in ‘93, “Greenlander” is in the vein of Slanted & Enchanted, very muffled with lots of dramatic mini-pauses, stuttering drums from Nastanovich (or is that Gary Young?) and that omnipresent bass-heartbeat. A spectacularly understated tune.

15 “Silence Kit” | Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Like “We Dance,” another album opener, this one beefier and broader, the first song they unleashed to the world after they “mattered.” What’s funny is that I don’t think it’s that much better than any of the songs I mentioned before, but it’s wrapped in more meaning being the first song on Pavement’s best-selling album and so evocative of a particular moment.

“Silence Kit” live in Cologne, 1994, with a fantastic alternate ending:

14 “Strings of Nashville” | Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA’s Desert Origins

Man did I love the “Gold Soundz” single. That might’ve been the moment when my interest turned into scary fandom, those three B-sides so good: “Kneeling Bus,” “Exit Theory” and this track. The resignation in “Nashville” is otherworldly: every aspect of the song is performed with the least amount of effort possible. Malkmus sounds like he’s singing from the bottom of a well, and the guitar is played so slowly and laconically it’s as if Kannberg is trying to transcribe the tablature as they record. Taken as a whole, it’s hypnotic, and a perfect, self-contained song.

13 “So Stark (You’re a Skyscraper)” | Trigger Cut

Though I dunno what it means, I’ve always found one lyric from this song awesomely snotty: “Stunnin’ the bureaucrats/ So fucking lost/ Stark as a skyscraper/ Letters embossed.” This is a rare Pavement song that heavily emphasizes the low-end, providing a pissy edge to the song’s placid, lackadaisical feel. Malkmus does his typical follow-the-bouncing-ball vocal melody, but his howl towards the end is totally unexpected and great. Recorded around Slanted & Enchanted, this really encapsulates the sound of early Pavement well.

12 “Give It a Day” | Pacific Trim EP

Veering close to Brighten the Corners-era, “Give It a Day” is so wordy it’s like Malkmus-as-self-parody, with its Cotton Mather namecheck, “small pox in the Sudan” and “gentrified your Alzheim clan” lyrics. But the melody is irresistible, loopy, catchy and really large. I remember this EP being a huge deal when it came out — only 5,000 copies manufactured on its initial run (it might have been my first-ever pre-order — thanks Blacksburg Record Exchange!) — and it really did signal a new direction for Pavement, with the ridiculous “Gangsters & Pranksters” and “Saganaw,” maybe the worst song in the band’s history (soooooo bad).

11 “AT&T” | Wowee Zowee

I originally had this song at the #3 spot — a sign of how close the next eleven songs are in terms of quality — but I had to keep dropping it as I returned to some old favorites. Still, this is an incredible song, especially its opening lyric, which I have always adored: “Maybe/ Someone’s gonna save me/ My heart is made of gravy.” (Is there a medical procedure for that, like doing a biscuit transplant?) If it weren’t for the last minute, which gets a bit silly in its epic-ness, this would’ve stayed top five, for sure. Although, listening to it on repeat right now, I can’t help but to feel like I’ve made a mistake for ranking it so low. Oh well.

Here’s a video someone on YouTube created of “AT&T” synced to a kung-fu movie: (vídeo indisponível)

10 “Stop Breathin’” | Crooked Rain Crooked Rain

Sitting here staring into space, I just realized that I have every lyric to this song memorized, and I can recount them sans music. Look who has talent! “Stop Breathin’” is such a beautiful song, so frank and sincere. The guitars shift in and out of each other, flirting like preteen fingers in a darkened movie theatre. “Dad they broke me.” “Stop breathin’ for me now.” I love it when they care.

Live in Germany, 1994:

09 “Range Life” | Crooked Rain Crooked Rain

Freshman year of college, stumbling through Colonial Williamsburg late one night with my two best friends, all of us intoxicated (on life!), the Colonial Cops patrolling through, driving up and down the cobblestone streets, the three of us ducking behind picket fences, mazed gardens and blacksmith shoppes. One friend, perhaps the most intoxicated of all, takes the opportunity during one particularly tense moment to begin singing/yelling, “the PIGS, the FUZZ, the COPS, the HEAT!” (a lyric from “Range Life”) at the top of her longs while we try to shush her. We get off scot-free.

Also, I don’t think Lupe Fiasco’s masterful “Kick Push” could have existed without this song. Just sayin’.

A video.

08 “Here” | Slanted & Enchanted

I’ve gotten to the point where I think I prefer the live version of this song (captured below in a YouTube clip, as well as in their Peel Session, heard here (waaa-waaaaaaaah) in track 24) to the album original. It’s a tough call. The original is introspective and resigned; the live versions are angry and defiant. And yet the lyrics work perfectly for both:

And I’m the only one who laughs
At your jokes when they are so bad
And your jokes are always bad
But they’re not as bad as this

Apropos of nothing, that verse has always reminded me of the opening lyric to Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street:” “You’ve got a lot of nerve/ To call yourself my friend/ When I was down/ You just stood there grinning,” which is the greatest opening lyric ever. FYI.

Anyway, the real key to “Here” is the guitar line. It plays a perfect harmony/counterpoint to the vocal, at times echoing Malkmus’ despair back to him, at others responding to it, as if it were the voice of the unnamed target of the song. Also, that little guitar hitch (dadadaddooooiDOY) sounds like Mario Brothers. Man, I am just full of Top Notch Insight today, aren’t I?

“Here” live in Belgium, 1992. Dudes, what’s with the shorts on stage? Are you the Chili Peppers???

07 “Box Elder” | Westing (By Musket and Sextant)

Because making shit up/half-remembering it is more fun than researching, here’s the history of “Box Elder:” Malkmus wrote the song, and it was released on a cassette called Slay Tracks, which I believe was Pavement’s first-ever release. It came out in ‘89, I think. David Gedge, dude from Cinerama (who suck) and Wedding Present (who were sometimes awesome; buy Seamonsters, pls), heard the song somehow, and covered it on Bizarro, an album of theirs from the early ’90s. Pavement had yet to really put anything out aside Slay Tracks, and yet Wedding Present were moderately big in the UK, and so there was interest generated and then John Peel loved Gedge and loved the song and this transferred over to Peel loving Malkmus and then History Was Made.

Most of this might be false. I dunno. I do think I might like the Wedding Present cover better — they rightly recognized how great the crazy-simple guitar line is while Pavement buries it — but it’s the kinda track that’s awfully hard to screw up. I think a lot of folks consider this when Pavement really started. But who cares what a lotta people think — I gotta lotta good things comin’ my way, and I’m not afraid to say that they’re not some of them. Oh snap!

Also, here’s Malkmus playing this solo a couple years ago in NYC. Killer.

06 “Summer Babe” | Slanted & Enchanted

So I think this is pretty much unanimously considered the best thing Pavement ever did, and for once it’s a conventional wisdom that’s hard to argue with. But I will anyway. “Summer Babe” is spectacular, for sure. It’s totally effortless, feels like it might have been written on the spot, excited sideways glances between the band members, too fearful to wonder if this is it because they don’t want to jinx it, like a pitcher getting too excited in the 8th inning of a no-hitter. It also contains what I am reasonably certain is the first Swisher Sweet reference in song (”mixin’ cocktails with a plastic-tipped cigar”). It also contains a McCartney-worthy bass line. To repeat: it is spectacular. One of my favorite songs ever — by any band — and one you should download if you have never heard. But there are five Pavement songs I think are better. Come back tomorrow to find out which.

05 “Frontwards” | Watery, Domestic

“I’ve got style/ Miles and miles/ So much style that it’s wasted.” It is, above all others, the definitive Pavement lyric, even though most folks would have trouble pinpointing the song from which it comes. But even without that line, “Frontwards” would belong here. The song straddles the rough amateurism of Slanted and the pop maturity of Crooked Rain, a very attractive combo. (Watery, Domestic came out between the two albums.) (Also, it’s ridiculous that AMG gives this a bad review, as this is maybe the best thing Pavement ever released. Anyway.) There’s a great hint of finality to the song, from the opening chord on. It’s always felt a bit like a eulogy to me.

04 “Grounded” | Wowee Zowee

The closest Pavement ever got to grunge — that post-chorus riff-build — another real fun downer, lots of tension, a sense of purpose. The best I can do to advocate for this song is implore you to watch this performance, which is stupendous:

03 “Zurich Is Stained” | Slanted & Enchanted

We need to start by quoting the lyrics to this one in full. (Maybe think of “Zurich” as being a white cushion on his and his gal’s brand new, crazy expensive couch. Maybe that will help.)

I can’t sing it strong enough
That kind of strength I just don’t have
But if you watch the light change
Don’t hold them hanging

You think it’s easy, but you’re wrong
I’m not one half of the problem
Zurich is stained and it’s not my fault
Just hold me back or let me run

So what does it mean, a mistake or two
If it’s the kind of mistake no one can trace
To the fountain where we sold it
And held them hanging

You think it’s easy, but you’re wrong
I’m not one half of the problem
Zurich is stained and it’s not my fault
Just hold me back or let me run
You think it’s easy, but you’re wrong
I’m not one half of the problem
Zurich is stained and it’s not my fault
Just hold me back or let me run

The simplicity and directness of these words are great, as is the fact that Malk sings them so plainly, real flat, not a lot of feeling, just getting it down on paper. It lends the song a lot more credibility than some wrought performance might (fortunately for the song, and us, I’m not sure if Malk even has that in him). The song is really short — 101 seconds — and throughout there’s this great, really bad slide guitar squeaking and squirting in the background, which I’ve always heard as kind of an id to the vocal’s ego. Which probably sounds ridiculous, I realize, but what do you expect from a liberal arts education?

02 “Texas Never Whispers” | Watery, Domestic

More Watery, Domestic goodness. Reason why this song ranks so high:

a) The song title, which is just a spectacular bit of wording. It’s like some phrase that Peter Bogdanovich or even John Lennon would think of, and then do their best to repeat at every instance (I know I would).
b) That opening overblown guitar bit, the pedals and guitar shrieking out this almost ceremonial melody, like announcing the arrival of a foreign head of state.
c) After that drops out, Malk opens with, “Here we go/ She’s on a hidden tableau.” It just sounds cool, folks.
d) “She’s so lackadaisical/ Should have been a West Coast bride.” I feel that, ya know?
e) The song is huge. There’s a spaciousness to it, an expansiveness to the arrangement. It’s wide and tall (I feel like most Pavement songs are tall but not wide). The arrangement is very impressive and mature.
f) The coda at the end with the flirting guitar solo/drum fills and the fuzz bass.
g) “This tunnel is a Tex-as mile.”

01 “Pueblo” | Wowee Zowee

So this one ain’t even close. For me, there’s “Pueblo,” one of the last songs on Wowee Zowee, and then there’s everything else. From the first moment I heard it, I was dumbstruck. Pavement never played around with tension/release — too good for it! — but here they succumbed to the temptation, concocting these really subdued but foreboding verses that would just explode into a chorus so impossibly huge, almost never-ending in its breadth thanks to two sustained guitar notes that clash and then harmonize with Malkmus’ vocals. Kicking into the chorus is this out-of-nowhere piercing guitar dropping three notes fast — “duh-duh-duuuuuuuh” — and then it all comes rushing forward, like a stampede at 45rpm.

And yet there’s not a really strong structure to it. It basically works like this: intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, post-chorus instrumental noodling that lasts for well over a minute, sorta-verse only more like a middle-eight, chorus explosion, explosion, explosion, fragments, fin. It’s just a really long tease, except with two tremendous payoffs, the second of which still astonishes me ten years later.

When I was 17 and living in the boondocks of Virginia, I had a tape that I would listen to repeatedly when driving around. I can’t remember what all was on there. I remember Pavement, Stone Roses, Breeders, Nirvana, Archers of Loaf, Oasis, things like that — the Pavement song was, obviously, “Pueblo.”

One of my closest friends at the time lived on top of a mountain, and had a two-mile long gravel driveway down to a slightly larger road. Well, one night I was driving down that road and rocking out to “Pueblo” in my stepmother’s Taurus at a pretty good clip. Singing along, pounding the steering wheel, that sort of thing. But as I got to the end of the driveway, I noticed at the last second that the gate that was almost always open — a really long, white, solitary pole — was partially closed, and was pointing into the road. I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late: I shut my eyes, and heard the sound of shattered glass and an awful tearing sound.

When I opened my eyes, I was confronted with a large white object pointing across my face. As I got my bearings, I realized that this long white pole had gone through the windshield, coming so close to my head that it had ripped the headrest behind me IN HALF. Somehow I still had my wits about me, so I very slowly backed the car up so the pole was out of the interior, and I stopped at a nearby trailer to use their phone. My family was obviously none too happy, and it was the closest I have ever come to death. And it’s all “Pueblo”’s fault. Thanks Pavement!