This month, São Paulo Fashion Week held its Winter 2012 edition, attracting celebrities and designers from Brazil and abroad. Today, we’re going to do a listening comprehension exercise listening to interviews from the event.
Where are they holding Fernanda Motta’s fashion shoot?
According to the editor, what did fashion week used to be like before?
What is MariMoon launching?
Cordels are an important Brazilian cultural form that come from the Northeast. A cordel is a string, and these poems, songs, or novels get their name from the way they are hung on a string at street fairs. They are typically printed in black and white with woodcut-style illustrations. While this folk literature comes from literary traditions in Portugal and Spain, it’s one of the oldest living literary traditions of its kind. Cordels are especially well known in Pernambuco, Ceará, and Paraíba. Some of the most famous cordels tell the story of outlaws, like “A Chegada de Lampião no Inferno” by José Pacheco. Read more about cordels in this article from The New York Times.
So, let’s read an excerpt from a cordel! This is “A Chegada de Lampião no Inferno,” about the famous Brazilian outlaw, Lampião.
Um cabra de Lampião
por nome Pilão Deitado
que morreu numa trincheira
um certo tempo passado
agora pelo sertão
anda correndo visão
fazendo malassombrado.
E foi quem trouxe a notícia
que viu Lampião chegar
o inferno nesse dia
faltou pouco pra virar
incendiou-se o mercado
morreu tanto cão queimado
que faz pena até contar
Vamos tratar na chegada
quando Lampião bateu
um moleque ainda moço
no portão apareceu:
Quem é você, cavalheiro?
Moleque, eu sou cangaceiro:
Lampião lhe respondeu.
- Moleque não, sou vigia
não sou seu pareceiro
e você aqui não entra
sem dizer quem é o primeiro:
- Moleque, abra o portão
saiba que sou Lampião
assombro do mundo inteiro.
For those who don’t know, one of the biggest Carnaval celebrations in the world is in Salvador, Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil. We posted last year about watching Carnaval Online, and I think it’s only fair we give you a heads up this year too!
Plus, this year you have more than just YouTube, you get to watch via Google+ Hangouts (link starts working at 8 PM Brasília time on Tuesday, Jan. 24th) where you can practice your Portuguese and ask artists questions about their performances!
Tomorrow, Jan. 25th, you can start by watching an Asa de Águia show live from Salvador as things start to heat up for Carnaval 2012!
What are your plans for Carnaval? Is anyone going to be in Brazil? If so, where are you headed?
Brazilians are really big on memes, and one of the most popular ones going around recently is “Luiza está no Canadá.” It’s from a commercial for a luxury apartment building in Paraíba, where the man advertising the building used his family in the commercial, but makes a point of saying that everyone is there except his daughter Luiza, who’s in Canada. It was so funny and random that it became an instant sensation on the web.
Luiza arrived home in Brazil this week, where she made a new commercial for her dad…
..and appeared on the national news.
The original commercial spanned numerous songs on Youtube, like this one:
It was even made into a tee shirt, and inspired a presidential tweet that got a member of President Dilma’s social media team fired.
Marisa Montes is such a great singer. Her debut album, MM, was released in 1989 but she reached the Brazilian music highlight in 1994 with the album Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor-de-Rosa e Carvão. Marisa has a very sweet voice and her songs are very good for listening practice and why not, sing along!?
Check out Marisa Monte’s latest hit, Ainda Bem, with the video featuring mixed martial artist Anderson Silva. Ainda bem is an idiom that means “it’s a good thing”, “luckily” or “I’m glad”.
Ainda Bem (I’m glad)
Ainda bem (I’m glad)
Que agora encontrei você (That now I’ve found you)
Eu realmente não sei (I really don’t know)
O que eu fiz pra merecer (What I’ve done to deserve)
Você (You)
Porque ninguém (Because nobody)
Dava nada por mim (Gave me the time of day)
Quem dava, eu não tava a fim (Who did, I wasn’t into)
Até desacreditei (I even lost faith)
De mim (In myself)
O meu coração (My heart)
Já estava acostumado (Was already used)
Com a solidão (To the loneliness)
Quem diria que a meu lado (Who would’ve known that by my side)
Você iria ficar (You would stay)
Você veio pra ficar (You’re here to stay)
Você que me faz feliz (You’re the one that makes me happy)
Você que me faz cantar (You’re the one that makes me sing)
Assim (Like this)
O meu coração (My heart)
Já estava aposentado (Was already retired)
Sem nenhuma ilusão (With no illusion)
Tinha sido maltratado (It had been mistreated)
Tudo se transformou (Everything’s changed)
Agora você chegou (Now you’re here)
Você que me faz feliz (You’re the one that makes me happy)
Você que me faz cantar (You’re the one that makes me sing)
Assim (Like this)
