Monday, August 22, 2011

Monday Covers (Consistency)

To all the killas and the hundred dolla billas, it's Monday again, and the week is looking chock-ful of the not-funs but the all-too-necessaries. I won't bore you with details, but a lot of moving has to happen this week in order to get into my new place on time.

But hey let's start this week right, shall we? Found this cover by accident (what else is new), but damn, I'm loving it. This song is a jam in its own right but the cover takes it in a whole new and equally awesome direction. With Blackstreet's "No Diggity" here's Australia's Chet Faker.



PS I remember dancing to this Blackstreet jam at the end of "dunston checks in"? If anyone can relate to this reference I'll award a yet to be named prize. gitit.

shirley

Your promised chill-music followup. I would kill to throw on some noise-cancelling headphones and walk down the street to this song because I just envision everything moving to the beat. The song is actually a remix of Caribou's "Sun" but Pyramid does a great job with it (lots of nouns in the names today). Caribou released their album and asked and said they'd award a prize to whoever remixed their songs the best, and thank jah because Pyramid emerged with this beauty, enjoy...happy beat-hopping

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Brasil: Musings July 30


Brasil post 3:

A short interim post to keep you hungry for more..

I've made a couple of small observations in Brasil that have particularly struck me. The first is pedestrian traffic patterns in Salvador. Coming from a relatively aggressive pedestrian zone in Boston (we made the J-walk cool) I thought that I would be prepared for reading walkers and runners as I try and make my way down the streets on my morning jogs. Wrong. Instead of the unwritten "pass on the right" rule that many runners and walkers adhere to, Salvadorians go wherever they feel like, which in most cases is as far from the treacherous roads as possible. Runners hold no right of way here and are usually pushed towards the road no matter how much room there is on the sidewalk. It's almost as if someone is saying, "Hey if you're trying to move that fast, then you can take that chance - on the inside lane". It's pretty amusing stuff actually and makes running in Salvador that much more of an adventure every (other) morning.

Another small observation is the use of the polite horn. Cars use their horns frequently down here, something that is commonplace for most cities. However, instead of laying on the horn like they do in the states, Brasilians give a polite horn tap to let people know where they're at on the road. The taps are so subtle to my Americano ears, that I don't usually hear them until the third go-around, which in some cases is a little too late ha. The polite horn usually only makes appearances in the States when someone is trying to get ahold of a friend on the sidewalk, so when I hear that beep here I spin around looking for a familiar face! Oh well, can't win them all, maybe some day I'll turn around to a familiar face, but for now I'll take just not getting hit by traffic.

Tchau for now.

brasil grandma and grandpa on grandpa's bday


the kool kid krew


alec and avo (grandpa)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

cheel

Installment dos of chillin music inbetween these brasil updates. Here's a song I discovered (with help) this winter out in Utah. Great combo of styles here. Whenever I hear it I feel myself back in those aspen forest ripping through fresh powder in slow motion (yea in my mind I move in slow motion) with the sun hitting it just right, ahhh i miss it! And I digress....song's sweet take a listen..

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Brasil: Favelas n Futebol

(If these read a little dry, remember this was being submitted to my teachers)
Post Number Dois:

Well, well life in Brazil has continued to impress me as I reach the end of my second week here.

A week ago we were afforded a unique opportunity to spend time with children from a poorer neighborhood in Salvador. These poorer areas, known as favelas, rarely offer an opportunity for children to develop and prosper. (Picture a neighborhood built on a steep hillside with no running water or sewage, with apartments built three stories high by amateur (at best) carpenters using only cinderblock and clay.) We visited a community center that gave these children an alternative to life on the street and helped us understand how these kids get along from day to day. For two days we were showed around the center, dancing and playing drums with the kids.

Per usual, I found the most lasting impressions came from outside the planned events. I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the hospitality we were shown by the center, but I was very happy to steal some chances to interact with the kids outside of the arranged events. The center has two horses (cavalos) on the premises that eat the grass around the yard and wander around. One of the meninos pulled me aside and informed me that the white horse was very skinny because the brown horse ate all of the "good" grass. He then explained that I shouldn't pull the white horses tail because he'll kick me up into the sky, wise advice from the surprisingly vocal young sage. He then offered to teach me how to play foosball on the center's aging foosball table. Noticing that there was no ball, the little boy told me not to worry and grabbed an empty spool to serve as our makeshift ball. With ball in hand, the boy proceeded to "teach" me by beating my soundly. We high-fived and I thanked him for letting me play. It was a very simple exchange, but that's what I will take away from my favela visit, very cool.

My one regret is that we weren't able to play futebol with the ball we got the kids. I could tell they wanted to play as bad as we did, but I guess the opportunity just wasn't there. For me and Alec this whole trip has been a reconnection with the grassroots of soccer. Everyone here plays, and it would have been really amazing to have played with little ones who literally only have a ball and some imagination.

We did get our chance a day later when we traveled to Itapirica with our host mae and irmao for a weekend at their family's house. Around dinner time we were getting ready to head back from the beach and grab janta when some kids spotted our bola. We exchanged the customary "joga?" "sim eu jogo" with the guys and set up a small-sided game on the beach. They were impressed they had met some Americanos that could play, and we knew enough Portuguese to talk with the kids. With Salvador and the Atlantic as our backdrop we played for over 45 minutes, and it was an experience I'll never forget. There was no language barrier, only a common game, the power of sport connecting two very different cultures. After the game our opponents offered us coconuts, climbing a 45 foot tree and kicking down coconuts, catching them in towels and cracking them on the rocks. We sat with our friends and watched the sunset on the beach as we sipped fresh coco verde. Que legal. It really was something I'll never forget.

Soccer has really been our saving grace here. We bring our bola everywhere, and whenever the opportunity arises we whip the ball out to juggle. It's amazing how many people have joined in with us. I wish it was like this in the States. There is definitely a communal aspect to this game that is incredibly strong in Brazil.

This is kind of a one-sided article, but I hope to fill in more as the week continues, including many more picture updates!! Thanks for checking in.

Graf with favela in the background, notice how huge they are..take up 70% of land area in Salvador

Welcome flags to Itapirica

Our ride to Itapirica

My host family and Alec and I (Alec, Carla, Maya, Paulo, Kade)

Nighttime chilllin

Our friend and his horse on the beach at Itapirica, stoic pose

Moonlit, long exposure with Salvador across the bay (midnight)

Itapirica group

Moonshine

slide in there

In between Brasil posts I'll throw some music at you, just to keep you in the loop. This Enigma remix of Sigur Ros' "Saeglopur" (which translated means 'Grocery Store Checkout Line" I'm told) is a bit more uptempo than the original, but hits that perfect chill chord in my book. It's a relaxed song with a heavy enough beat and even some soft dub that'll keep you moving in the morning... we'll call it downtempo. Either way, stuff's legit, add it to the playlist. L8r sk8rs..

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Brasil: Branching Out

So I've been keeping a (sort of) blog for my recent trip to Brasil on posterous, and I couldn't stand the site, so I'm switching it over here so people can see what I've been up to.

I had to take summer classes this year to fulfill credit requirements and was lucky enough to go to Brasil to fulfill them. I stayed with my good friend Alec and a Brasilian host family in an immersion setting. I went in with no Portuguese training at all, and it was an adventure to say the least. Here's some stories and pics from the trip. Enjoy!

* * * * *
Oi amigos! Welcome to my Brasil blog!
I have tried to hit the ground running here, experiencing as much of the city of Salvador as possible. Within hours of landing (a day late) in Salvador, some of us made our way down to the famous Porto da Barra - oft considered one of the best public beaches in Brasil and the world - to see what the hype was about. We were quickly blown away by the incredibly active culture that surrounds beach and city life in the region. Endless amounts of people, young and old, could be found running, playing soccer, swimming and enjoying the beach.
The beach itself was stunning, with clear and mild water and soft sand, a far cry from the beaches we have come accustomed to in the Northern Atlantic. It really was the perfect way to spend our first day in a new place.
For me personally the experience has been something out of a dream. Brasil has always loomed somewhere off in my distant imagination, always out of reach. Now however, I'm living it, and it really is something special. After just five days of language immersion, I'm beginning to grasp not only the spoken language but the body language that so regularly goes with it. My host family has been unbelievably accommodating and is dedicated to helping me learn the language and enjoy their beautiful country.
Trips to Ribeira, Barra, Rio Vermelho, Pelourhino, Cidade Alta and Cidade Baixa helped us gain a lay of the land in our new and sprawling city. I took some awesome photos and am excited to continue adding to my collection.
What has really blown me away during the first week of the trip though, has been the love for futebol (soccer). The Brasileiros really bring to light how beautiful and simple the game is, and as a soccer player, I'm smitten. Two posts and a ball, something the Brasilian people have taken to heart. I have seen creativity blossom in each of the different fields we encounter with goals made from the traditional metal, to wood, to plastic piping, to sticks on the beach. We are also fortunate to be down here during the Copa America, the biggest tournament in futebol outside of the Copa Mundial. For the last Brasil game Alec and I went out to a small bar with our host broder Paolo and his friends, a very real and very Brasil experience. I am looking forward to exploring the city's love of the game further in future blogs.
I had many more experiences this week (bartering at the market for jerseys, going for acaraje with our host mother, shopping at the mall and visiting a favela), but I think I should end my rambling before it goes too long. Ate mais tarde...
-Kade (Ca-Ji)


One of the endless beaches in Salvador, most just a walk away


Futebol on the beach in Itapirica..Salvador across the bay


Knockoff jerseys for the Copa game..yes please

Monday, August 15, 2011

Back on Track Monday Covers

So over the next few days I'll be transferring over my Brasil blog to here, hopefully it'll give you a better peek into what i've been up to the past month-ish, sorry for the delay on that. In that same spirit and in the spirit of Monday Covers, I thought I'd upload a random little video of some covers in action. Brasil had covers everywhere. Almost every band I saw down there would throw in a Bob Marley or MJ. So anyways a couple of times I had my Flip cam on me and decided it'd be fun to record some covers "in the wild". Here's a mundane attempt at "Walking on Sunshine" that I recorded..in the Salvador airport...at 3am, haha.



For those aching for a little more, let me start of with a PARENTAL ADVISORY. If you're still here, I've got a little Theophilus London cover of Tweet's "Oops..Oh My" (don't pretend like you don't remember this one). Definitely digging the song, the video kind of comes out of left field though. I guess it was some artistic venture Lindsay Lohan took before heading to jail? I'm really confused. Either way, the song is chill, the vid...it is what it is. Aight playas, headin back to CT today, B EZ killllas.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Throne

The new Jay-Z/Kanye colab "Watch the Throne" is straight fiyerrrr. Get on board kiddos, this is one boat you don't want to miss. They leaked it online before it goes on sale so click this link and listen in.

My two favs are "Ni**as in Paris" and "Why I Love You". The sampling is out of this world, click the link snitches....... Dankity dank


...and don't say I never gave you anything nice.

**UPDATE**
So i guess they shut it off. Anywho, buy it, it's that good. Crazy, I know.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Whoaaa

So you're saying I can't walk to the beach from my city apartment and drink an ice-cold 1.50 beer right next to the cops while staring at scantily-clad beautiful women anymore?

...reverse culture-shock is depressing.


In other news...I'm back in Boston and giving you your cover on a Tuesday...EZ DUZ IT






The video is pretty cheeky, name all the MJ references in the vid and win a free pair of plastic vampire teeth

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Segunda-Feira Covers



Blah gettin bogged down here, but not forgetting about ya. I'm a day late, and within hours of heading off on a jungle adventure in Lencois, and figured it was now or never (e agora ou nunca)! So here ya go Avalange...Carlos Santana covering Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman". WHAT?!? That's a cover? Well folks you learn a new thing everyday when you kick it with Killa Kade. B EZ ninjas...