Português of the Week

comemoração - celebration

Monday, September 21, 2009

Keep In Rio: Southern Utah Press Style

On this, the day of the Trazzler final judgment, I give you — Keepin It Rio's first appearance in that archaic, rough, dirty-up-ya-fingers, form of media — newspaper.





+


In true, um, Brazilian-style — this wasn't printed until the day after the contest voting ended (Sept. 15).

Imagine the untapped potential of the dozens of literate Southern Utahans...a few of which, surely have the ability to use a computer.

I hope, within the next few hours, it is THEIR spirit that forces the Trazzler judges hands towards selecting my trip.

Good morning and good luck.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Travel Channel: Keepin It Phony

Travel Channel — how can you be so bad and so good all at once?

You give the Hunter S. Thompson of Food a platform (Bourdain's No Reservations) and then you barf up this.

Brace yourself folks. Below is the actual description of the shows first episode — taken directly from the press release sent to us:
Riku and Tunna, the two Finns behind the madness, begin their journey in Brazil where they encounter dangers I personally wouldn't dare to face. The episode starts with Riku in a medical chair getting his bicep sliced open with a scalpel. What for? A diamond of course! He gets a diamond sewn under his skin in case he gets robbed and needs cash fast.

This precaution makes more sense once they reach their first destination: a shanty-town (Rocinha Favela) run by gang members. The murder rate in this town is significantly higher than Rio's, which has one of the highest crime rates worldwide. A lot of criminals move to the shanty town to get lost after leaving prison. Riku and Tunna get up-close-and-personal with one of the gang members and his guns.

They have got to be joking...

Unfortunately, prior to this post, the preview of the show has been removed from YouTube.

It was probably because of the dozens of comments pointing out whatever false location the show was calling Rocinha.

I spent around a dozen Funk fueled nights scurrying up and down the morro of the most populated favela in Rio and, no, that certainly doesn't appear familiar. I'm no favela expert but I do also recall every single person (Brasilero or not) being accosted by rifled minions whenever even seeming to take a picture with so-much as a cell phone — much less a video camera.

Aside from Diplo's 'Favela On Blast', which doesn't even show too much visually, you will be hard pressed to find quality favela footage.

In addition to the obvious cultural clusterfuckery this show is about to induce upon the places it visits, I wonder about the legal ramifications of lying about the place you are claiming to be shooting from.

Of course, I refuse to actually tell you what day the show will start. If you really wanna see it you will have to figure it out by means other than those of my words.

Travel Channel stays losing.

Tony may wanna jump ship before it's too late.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Trazzler Halftime: The Push for 1,000 Slothy Wishlists



Welp.

We are at the midway point in the Trazzler.com #NYCGO writing contest. It has been a lot mo' fun and exciting than people woulda predicted. From the jump, I've been all sorts of active about getting the word out and it seems like a few dozen of the 204 semifinalists did the same. The efforts have livened the experience up for everyone involved.

I don't readily toot my own horn but in this case I'll break for a squeeze.

For one, my idea to donate some of the winnings to charity has caught on almost as rapidly as the wildfires burning my current So-Cal surroundings. Initially, I felt a tad robbed but charity is still charity and I would rather the winner donate a portion of their winnings to positive cause — especially one having to do with their Trazzler trip. After all, the writers owe as much to the places they visited as they do to their writing abilities. It's also true that most of my fellow competitors have only been complimentary instead of malicious.

I've been impressed with my supporters' drive to hustle votes and clicks for my lil' writing tidbit. Some get pretty excited and I have to be wary to warn cats not to flirt with their five-per-IP address limits by allowing votes from their friends and family. Visions of mid-party music halts aimed at convincing everyone in the room to log onto Facebook and send a vote the sloth direction plague my mind.

Still, aside from a few techno-tards who can't seem to follow the simplest of steps (albeit the voting/wishlisting terms take an inkling of explaining) to vote for the trip, all of my efforts have yielded results. The YouTube video should hit 1,000 before the contest is up, my CouchSurfing comrades have represented well, the Twitterverse has been responsive and, of course, the majority of my wishlisters have flooded in from my Facebook contingent.

As the contestants tighten their shoe laces, adjust their shin guards and wait for the second half to begin, a lot could still change. Team SLOTH won't. And to paraphrase Mos Def:

"No Matter How Hard You Sloth, You Can't Stop Us Now."

VOTE NOW BY WISHLISTING THIS TRIP FOLKS!


Let's hit 1,000!