Saturday, July 31, 2010

Linton Kwesi Johnson - First Reggae Poet.

Linton Kwesi Johnson was born on 24 August 1952 in Chapelton, a small town in the rural parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. He came to London in 1963, went to Tulse Hill secondary school and later studied Sociology at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. Whilst still at school he joined the Black Panthers, helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement and developed his work with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers. In 1977 he was awarded a C Day Lewis Fellowship, becoming the writer-in-residence for the London Borough of Lambeth for that year. He went on to work as the Library Resources and Education Officer at the Keskidee Centre, the first home of Black theatre and art.

Johnson’s poems first appeared in the journal Race Today. In 1974 Race Today published his first collection of poetry, Voices of the Living and the Dead. Dread Beat An’ Blood, his second collection, was published in 1975 by Bogle-L’Ouverture and was also the title of his first LP, released by Virgin in 1978. That year also saw the release of the film Dread Beat An’ Blood, a documentary on Johnson’s work. In 1980 Race Today published his third book, Inglan Is A Bitch and there were four more albums on the Island label: Forces of Victory (1979), Bass Culture (1980), LKJ in Dub (1981) and Making History

LKJ, Johnson’s own record label, was launched in 1981 with two singles by the Jamaican poet Michael Smith, Mi Cyaan Believe It and Roots. During the 1980s he became immersed in journalism, working closely with the Brixton-based Race Today collective. His 10-part radio series on Jamaican popular music, From Mento to Lovers Rock, went out on BBC Radio 1 in 1982 and was repeated in 1983. From 1985-88 he was a reporter on Channel 4’s The Bandung File. He also toured regularly with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and produced albums by the writer Jean Binta Breeze and by jazz trumpeter Shake Keane.

Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the album LKJ Live in Concert with the Dub Band was released independently in 1985 and was nominated for a Grammy Award soon after. This was followed by Tings An’ Times in 1991, also the title of his Selected Poems co-published by Bloodaxe Books and LKJ Music Publishers the same year. In 1992 Linton Kwesi Johnson and Dennis Bovell collaborated to produce LKJ in Dub: Volume Two. In 1996 the album LKJ Presents was released, a compilation of various artists including Linton Kwesi Johnson. This was followed in the same year by LKJ A Cappella Live, a collection of 14 poems including some unpublished works. In 1998 Johnson released More Time to celebrate his twentieth anniversary in the recording business. Island also released a two-CD compilation set entitled Independant Intavenshan. In 2002 Linton Kwesi Johnson became only the second living poet and the first black poet to have his work published in Penguin’s Modern Classics series, under the title Mi Revalueshanary Fren. The BBC made a TV programme about LKJ’s poetry, shown in their Profile series on BBC 4. In this year Johnson also released the CD LKJ in Dub Volume Three. To mark his 25th anniversary as a reggae recording artist, Linton Kwesi Johnson released a CD and, for the first time ever, a DVD in 2004 entitled LKJ Live in Paris with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band.


Linton Kwesi Johnson has been made an Associate Fellow of Warwick University (1985), an Honorary Fellow of Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1987) and received an award at the XIII Premo Internazionale Ultimo Novecento from the city of Pisa for his contribution to poetry and popular music (1990). In 1998 he was awarded the Premio Piero Ciampi Citta di Livorno Concorso Musicale Nazionale in Italy. In 2003 Johnson was bestowed with an honorary fellowship from his alma mater, Goldsmiths College. In 2004 he became an Honorary Visiting Professor of Middlesex University in London. In 2005 Linton Kwesi Johnson was awarded a silver Musgrave medal from the Institute of Jamaica for distinguished eminence in the field of poetry. He has toured the world from Japan to the new South Africa, from Europe to Brazil. His recordings are amongst the top-selling reggae albums in the world and his work has been translated into Italian and German. Unsurprisingly, he is known and revered as the world’s first reggae poet.

biography by www.lintonkwesijohnson.com

Monday, July 19, 2010

Remembering Willy DeVille.

Willy DeVille, a singer and songwriter and the leader of the group Mink DeVille, whose adventurous forays into rhythm and blues, Cajun music and salsa made him one of the most original figures of the New York punk scene of the 1970s, died on August 6, in Manhattan. He was 58.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his publicist, Carol Kaye.
Mr. DeVille, a regular at CBGB in the mid-1970s, lent his bluesy voice and eclectic musical tastes to Mink DeVille, one of the club’s main draws. A disciplined songwriter with a deep admiration for the Atlantic Records sound of the Drifters and Ben E. King, he drew from many sources, including Latin music, French ballads, New Orleans funk and Cajun accordion music. He was, the critic Robert Palmer wrote in The New York Times in 1980, “idiomatic, in the broadest sense, and utterly original.”





Mr. DeVille was born William Borsey in Stamford, Conn. After dropping out of school at 16, he began spending time in Greenwich Village and on the Lower East Side, where he learned to play the guitar and began performing, affecting a blues style like that of John Hammond Jr. He played with several groups before assembling Mink DeVille on a trip to San Francisco. He brought it to New York in 1975.

Mink DeVille, frequently lumped in with its fellow headliners Blondie, Television and Talking Heads, was essentially a soul band with roots in the commercial songwriting traditions of the Brill Building. Onstage Mr. DeVille cut a dapper figure. A pencil mustache and sculptured pompadour complemented his suits and pointy Italian shoes.

Working with Jack Nitzsche, a producer associated with Phil Spector, the group recorded the album “Cabretta” in 1977 for Capitol Records. Two of its tracks, “Spanish Stroll” and Moon Martin’s “Cadillac Walk,” became minor hits. The group recorded two more albums with Mr. Nitzsche for Capitol, “Return to Magenta,” which employed shimmering string arrangements reminiscent of the Drifters on several tracks, and the oddly romantic, highly eclectic “Le Chat Bleu.”

“Le Chat Bleu,” recorded in Paris without most of the original band members, baffled Capitol. It included French cabaret music, Cajun accordion melodies and songs written with Doc Pomus, one of the writers of “Save the Last Dance for Me.” Although the album sold well in Europe, Capitol shelved it, finally releasing it in 1980 to critical acclaim.

In a spiritual homecoming, Mr. DeVille signed with Atlantic Records after returning to the United States and recorded the soul-tinged “Coup de Grace” (1981), with Mr. Nitzsche as producer, and “Where Angels Fear to Tread” (1983). “Sportin’ Life” (1985), his last album under the Mink DeVille name, included “Italian Shoes,” a hit in Europe.

After 1985 Mr. Deville performed and recorded as Willy Deville, pursuing a path with unusual twists and turns. His song “Storybook Love,” from the album “Miracle” (1987), was used as the theme for “The Princess Bride” and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Relocating to New Orleans in 1988 reinforced a lifelong attraction to Cajun, zydeco and New Orleans rhythm and blues, a taste Mr. DeVille indulged in “Victory Mixture” (1990), a collaboration with New Orleans greats like Dr. John, Eddie Bo and Allen Toussaint, and in “Loup Garou” (1995).

The unpredictable Mr. DeVille recorded a startling mariachi version of the Jimi Hendrix hit “Hey Joe” on “Backstreets of Desire” (1992) and turned to Southern traditional music and blues on “Horse of a Different Color” (1999). He later toured and recorded live as part of an acoustic trio. After living in New Mexico for several years, he returned to New York in 2003.

Mr. DeVille’s first two wives died. He is survived by his third wife, Nina; a son, Sean; and a sister, Mimi, who lives in Australia.





from The New York Times, August 7 2009.

Formula Super Vê no Brasil.

O Polar Super Vê, com chassis monobloco, era fabricado por Ricardo Achcar e Ronald Rossi. Êsse aqui era o da equipe Gledson, com o qual o Alfredo guaraná Meneses foi campeão em 1978.

photos pertencem ao album ibsenbop no www.fotki.com

Friday, July 16, 2010

Magnífico Sunset!


Posted on this blog on March 22, 2005.
I've ever since tried to catch another sunset like this one, in the Coachella Valley, precisely at the North Gate of the Cathedral Canyon Country Club, Cathedral City, California.
No success so far... so here is the old one.
Magnífico, no doubt about it

Camera: Lumix FMC-DSC20

Palm Springs Miniature Landscape


camera: Kodak Retina IV, lens Retina-Xenon f1:9/50mm
film Fuji Superia 200

Bubble Car

Brava Cidinha Campos!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Lula - "The Benefactor"


In search of soft power, Brazil is turning itself into one of the world's biggest aid donors. But is it going too far, too fast?

ONE of the most successful post-earthquake initiatives in Haiti is the expansion of Lèt Agogo (Lots of Milk, in Creole), a dairy co-operative, into a project encouraging mothers to take their children to school in exchange for free meals. It is based on Bolsa Família, a Brazilian welfare scheme, and financed with Brazilian government money. In Mali cotton yields are soaring at an experimental farm run by Embrapa, a Brazilian research outfit. Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm, is building much of Angola’s water supply and is one of the biggest contractors in Africa.

Without attracting much attention, Brazil is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest providers of help to poor countries. Official figures do not reflect this. The Brazilian Co-operation Agency (ABC), which runs “technical assistance” (advisory and scientific projects), has a budget of just 52m reais ($30m) this year. But studies by Britain’s Overseas Development Institute and Canada’s International Development Research Centre estimate that other Brazilian institutions spend 15 times more than ABC’s budget on their own technical-assistance programmes. The country’s contribution to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is $20m-25m a year, but the true value of the goods and services it provides, thinks the UNDP’s head in Brazil, is $100m. Add the $300m Brazil gives in kind to the World Food Programme; a $350m commitment to Haiti; bits and bobs for Gaza; and the $3.3 billion in commercial loans that Brazilian firms have got in poor countries since 2008 from the state development bank (BNDES, akin to China’s state-backed loans), and the value of all Brazilian development aid broadly defined could reach $4 billion a year (see table). That is less than China, but similar to generous donors such as Sweden and Canada—and, unlike theirs, Brazil’s contributions are soaring. ABC’s spending has trebled since 2008.

This aid effort—though it is not called that by the government—has wide implications. Lavishing assistance on Africa helps Brazil compete with China and India for soft-power influence in the developing world. It also garners support for the country’s lonely quest for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Since rising powers like Brazil will one day run the world, argues Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães Neto, the foreign ministry’s secretary-general, they can save trouble later by reducing poverty in developing countries now.

Moreover, aid makes commercial sense. For example, Brazil is the world’s most efficient ethanol producer, and wants to create a global market in the green fuel. But it cannot do so if it is the world’s only real provider. Spreading ethanol technology to poor countries creates new suppliers, boosts the chances of a global market and generates business for Brazilian firms.

The effort matters to the world’s aid industry, too—and not only because it helps offset the slowdown in aid from traditional donors. Like China, Brazil does not impose Western-style conditions on recipients. But, on the whole, western donors worry less about Brazilian aid than they do over China’s, which they think fosters corrupt government and bad policy. Brazilian aid is focused more on social programmes and agriculture, whereas Chinese aid finances roads, railways and docks in exchange for access to raw materials (though Brazilian firms are busy snapping up commodities in third-world nations, too).

Marco Farani, the head of ABC, argues there is a specifically Brazilian way of doing aid, based on the social programmes that have accompanied its recent economic success. Brazil has a comparative advantage, he says, in providing HIV/AIDS treatment to the poor and in conditional cash-transfer schemes like Bolsa Família. Its tropical-agriculture research is among the world’s best. But Brazil also still receives aid so, for good or ill, its aid programme is eroding the distinction between donors and recipients, thus undermining the old system of donor-dictated, top-down aid.

And all this has consequences for the West. Some rich-country governments cautiously welcome what Brazilians call “the diplomacy of generosity”, just as they do the soft-power ambitions of which aid is part. After all, if (as seems likely) emerging markets are to become more influential, Brazil—stable, democratic, at peace with its neighbours—looks more attractive and tractable than, say, China or Russia.

But if aid is any guide, a lot will have to change before Brazil occupies the place in the world that its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, aspires to. Brazil seems almost ambivalent about its aid programme. The country still has large pockets of third-world poverty, and sending money abroad could be controversial. Brazilian law forbids giving public money to other governments, so legal contortions are inevitable. The ABC aid agency is tucked away in the foreign ministry, where its officials are looked down on as “Elizabeth Arden” diplomats (London–New York–Paris), not the “Indiana Jones” adventurers required. At least some aid, for example to Venezuela, seems to have been inspired by Lula’s soft spot for leftist strongmen. And the exponential increase in aid—the value of humanitarian contributions has risen by 20 times in just three years—means that both people and institutions are being overwhelmed. Stories abound of broken promises, incompetence and corruption.

Slowly, though, things are changing. Dilma Rousseff, the presidential candidate from Lula’s party, is thought to be mulling over the idea of a new development agency to raise aid’s profile, if elected. As Mr Farani says, Brazil needs more aid officials, with more operational independence and a greater emphasis on policy aims, not just piecemeal projects. Until it gets those, Brazil’s aid programme is likely to remain a global model in waiting—a symbol, perhaps, of the country as a

......................................................................................................................................

Em busca do status de potência global, o Brasil vem se posicionando na comunidade internacional em diferentes áreas. Além da recente participação no acordo nuclear com a Turquia e o Irã e a batalha pelo assento permanente no Conselho de Segurança da ONU, o país já se tornou um dos maiores doadores internacionais para áreas de risco ou financiamento de projetos, diz a revista britânica "The Economist".

A reportagem indica que o orçamento oficial da Agência Brasileira de Cooperação (ABC) é de R$ 52 milhões, mas um levantamento feito pelo Instituto de Desenvolvimento Internacional do Reino Unido e o Centro de Pesquisa em Desenvolvimento Internacional do Canadá mostra que no total uma série de agências do governo brasileiro gastam ao menos 15 vezes mais do que isso em seus próprios programas de assistência.

A revista britânica apontou que Brasília contribui com cerca de R$ 35 a R$ 44 milhões por ano com o Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (Pnud), mas de acordo com o chefe do programa da ONU no país o valor real seria de R$ 177 milhões.

Outras iniciativas brasileiras incluem: R$ 531 milhões ao Programa Mundial de Alimentos da ONU, R$ 619 milhões à reconstrução do Haiti; pequenas ações em Gaza, e cerca de R$ 5,8 bilhões em empréstimos comerciais que empresas brasileiras privadas concederam a países pobres desde 2008 por meio do BNDES.

Somando-se todas as frentes, o montante de ajuda internacional que o Brasil fornece a outros países chega a cerca de R$ 7 bilhões por ano -- menos do que a China, mas similar ao que tradicionais "generosos" doadores como o Canadá e a Suécia concedem a outras nações. E ao contrário dos ocidentais, o montante brasileiro triplicou desde 2008.

POTÊNCIA "SOFT-POWER"

A reportagem indica que sem fazer "muito alarde", Brasília vem atuando em diversas partes do mundo em desenvolvimento.

Após seis meses do terremoto no Haiti, um dos esforços internacionais mais bem sucedidos é brasileiro. O programa "Lèt Agogo" (Muito leite, em crioulo) é uma cooperativa que encoraja as mães a levarem os filhos para a escola em troca de refeições, uma ação baseada no Bolsa Família e financiando pelo governo brasileiro, diz a revista.

No Mali uma série de campos de algodão são cultivados com sucesso graças a uma fazenda experimental implementada pela Embrapa.

Em Angola, a empreiteira brasileira Odebrecht é um dos gigantes do setor e é responsável pela construção de grande parte do sistema de abastecimento de água no país, indica a "Economist".

A revista britânica diz que apesar de o Brasil não considerar as ações como "ajuda internacional", os benefícios trazidos pela participação do país nestes programas de desenvolvimento -- além da atuação direta de empresas privadas e agências governamentais brasileiras em diversas nações -- são indiscutíveis.

"A abundância da assistência na África ajuda o Brasil a competir com a China e a Índia em termos de influência como potência [do tipo 'soft-power'] no mundo em desenvolvimento. Também faz com que o país obtenha apoio para sua busca solitária por um assento permanente no Conselho de Segurança da ONU", indica a "Economist".

Para o secretário-geral do Itamaraty, Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães Neto, os gastos se justificam com uma projeção do status de potência feita pelo governo. Já que poderes em ascensão como o Brasil um dia terão muito mais controle do cenário internacional, a redução da pobreza em países em desenvolvimento agora representará menos problemas no futuro.

POTÊNCIAS OCIDENTAIS

O mundo ocidental se preocupa mais com os esforços chineses do que os brasileiros, afirma a revista, mas mesmo assim a crescente presença de financiamento do Brasil em países em desenvolvimento vem despertando a atenção das potências mais ricas.

Há também especificidades sobre a maneira brasileira de "ajudar outros países", diz a reportagem. Ao contrário das principais agências de desenvolvimento internacional como as dos EUA, Reino Unido, Canadá e União Europeia, o Brasil não impõe metas ou condições rígidas que devem ser atingidas pelos receptores dos recursos.

Para Marco Farani, chefe da ABC, os esforços brasileiros contam com a experiência que produziu o recente sucesso econômico no país. Brasília conta com programas de excelência como o tratamento de HIV/Aids para os mais pobres e esquemas sociais como o Bolsa Família e Bolsa Escola.

No entanto, a "Economist" argumenta que o país ainda recebe ajuda internacional de potências ocidentais e programas mundiais de desenvolvimento, o que faz com que a distinção tradicional entre doadores e receptores perca sentido no cenário atual.

DIPLOMACIA DA GENEROSIDADE

A "diplomacia da generosidade" é bem-vinda pelas potências ocidentais, mas com ressalvas. As ambições de liderança brasileiras soam um alarme, mas a probabilidade de o país sul-americano se tornar um mercado mais influente do que a Rússia ou a China interessa ao Ocidente.

A "Economist" diz ainda que apesar dos sucessos, o modelo que o país adota como doador internacional ainda está em criação. A revista cita o o chefe da ABC, Marco Farani, dizendo que o Brasil precisa de mais oficiais no setor, mais independência e uma ênfase maior nos objetivos da política de assistência a outros países, ao invés de projetos isolados.

"Até conseguir fazer estas tarefas, o programa de ajuda internacional do Brasil provavelmente deve permanecer sendo um modelo global 'em aguardo' -- um símbolo, talvez, da situação do país como um todo", diz a revista britânica.

tradução para o portuguêa por folha.com

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Alvin Lee - The Bluest Blues

Alvin Lee has always been underrated. Undeserved fate for one of the greatest rock'n roll & Blues guitar player of all time.





Sunday, July 11, 2010

On the 50's and 60's Radios Used to Look Like work of Art

Pretty impressive the work of Dan Palatnik, brazilian ilustrator, specializing in digital art.
Thanks to illustrators like him, the industrial design of past decades is kept alive, so the new generations can admire it, and realize how art could be applied to industrialized products.
His collections of radios from the 50's and 60's, on the illustration down bellow is amazing.
Palatnik also has a very extensive collection of automobile illustrations ranging from the 30's to the 60's.

Check his work at www.palat.com.br, and at garagemdigital.blogspot.com

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Plymouth Cuda at Sonoma Historic, Sears Point, 2010

This very fine Plymouth, was present at the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, last 15-16 of June.
After seen its picture at Joel Cesetti's Sport Protótipos blog, it came to my mind that I had made a clip, and uploaded to Youtube. So here it is.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Porsches & Digital Art 2


Bateu uma vontade de brincar com o Photo-Paint.
Não consegui a leveza da pintura do post abaixo, sacada do www.art-racing.com, dei mesmo foi uma carregada no Porsche 911 GT1, mas pra mim valeu a brincadeira