Merry Christmas

Live from Porto, in Portugal, I wish all the all my friends and occasional visitors a great happy season! ;-)

Another Christmas goes by, with family, a full table and lots of good humour :-) And don't complaint if you didn't get the gift from your wish list... there are worse things in life! ahah

See you next Christmas (if we don't take into account the end of the world! ahahah)

One year to the end of the world

The Maya civilization had a funny calendar. They were living quietly in south america, some centuries ago. For them it made no sense to have an endless calendar in time. So they decided to consider December 21st 2012 as the last day on Earth.

We are exactly one year before the doomsday, so instead of making New Year's resolutions we should be making end of the world resolutions! :-)

A big thank you to the Mayas for warning us! :-P

Let the countdown begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I'm alive...and busy...and with this blog very rusty! :-)

I want to wish you all, specially all my friends all over the USA, a great Thanksgiving!

Last year, around this date, I was on the land of Uncle Sam... for an amazing vacation!

Among all the experiences I had, I confess I loved the typical Thanksgiving dinner. A big table, a big happy american family, lots a food... and the typical giant turkey! Thanks guys! :-)

Viva o São João!

Tomorrow, June 24th it's Saint John's, São João, but in Porto (and in some other cities around the world) the real party is tonight! Sardines, Caldo Verde (popular soup made with collard green), popular music, small toy hammers, colorfull hot air paper ballons and lots of fireworks on the Douro river!

Do you think it makes no sense? So visit Porto on the night of June 23rd and you will never forget the date :-)

Well, this is a small post to wish a great São João to everyone! I'm not in Porto, but there will be sardines tonight here! :-P

June 4th 2011

Yes, I'm alive! Very much alive! Don't worry, I wasn't caught by a tsunami, an earthquake or a volcano! :-P

This blog has been sleepy lately, but not its author! ahah I like to be busy, but in the past few months I've been super busy.
It's sad to realize I haven't been updating my posts for 2 months! :-S Time really flies when you're having fun! ahah

I've been doing more or less the same, flying, driving, hiking ... travelling around.
This Year of the Rabbit has been having a charged agenda... but not overcharged! ahah

I took this special date, June 4th, to update this blog with an entry directy from my hometown, Porto.

Let's see if I'll post more often, or else one day someone will call the police to report my disappearing! ahahah

Happy Saint Patrick!

Today is a special day for irish people all over the world. I'm not from Irelan, but Saint Patrick day it's a fun, green and happy celebration. :)

So join the party and have a beer in an irish bar. Slainte!

A special word to my japanese friends: ganbatte! I know times are difficult in Japan, but keep a positive spirit. I'm with you! :)

And also all the best for the 3 portuguese soccer teams playing tonight in UEFA Europa League! ;-)
Of course, I'll be cheering more for FC Porto ;-)

Getting ready for Carnaval

It may be a cold weekend in Paris, but it's Carnaval. And if the sun doesn't help, we always have a food and friends to make the day! :)

There's no Carnaval like the brazilian one. So a typical brazilian feijoada is mandatory this weekend! With caipirinha cocktails too, of course! ;-)

The ingredients are ready! Tomorrow is cooking time!

It's samba time! ;-)

My Razzies and Oscars

There are many movie awards and ceremonies, but the most famous one is the Oscar. That's the power of marketing, not actually the quality of the show or even the fareness of the winners.

The goal of these ceremonies is to award the best in the business, but there is one award I also enjoy, the Razzie. The Razzies' ceremony is always held the day before the Oscars and its goal is to award... the worst in the movie industry! :)

As a movie fan, I'll present you my awards for the movies I've seen during 2010. My favourites and the ones I didn't enjoy. ;-)
I've watched all the movies on the big screen, so they all had the same exhibition conditions ;-)
Some movies are from 2009, but they were released in France during 2010.

The Best

Best Actor
Viggo Mortensen, "The Road"

Best Actress
Isabelle Fuhrman, "Orphan". She can be only a child, but it's impressive the role she has as the evil Esther

Best Comedy
"Kick Ass". A very good surprise for a comic book adaptation. Politically incorrect but totally fun.
Special mention: "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World". Another comic book adaptation which besides being funny, has a different approach to the genre

Best Drama
"The Ghost Writter". Good directing by Roman Polanski. Very Hitchcockian.
Special mention: "Shutter Island".

Best Thriller
"Buried". A simple story with a breathtaking suspense.

Best Action
"Inception". A twisted story, mind breaking and well directed.
Special mention: "Sherlock Holmes". A new and fresh version from the classic detective story.

Best Horror
"Orphan". A special horror movie about a special serial killer, masterfully interpreted by a very young actress.
Special mention: "The Wolfman". Great cinematography, which captures the style from the old good horror movies.

Best Animation
"The Princess and the Frog". A good example of how it's still possible to make a good hand drawn animation movie, with a good story and songs.


The Worst

They were so uninteresting, that I won't split by category. ;-)

"Nine" - a bad excuse for a musical
"Alice in Wonderland" - my disappointment of 2010. Was it really a Tim Burton movie?
"Clash of Titans" - a very bad remake, Hollywood style.
"The A-Team" - an insult to the TV show
"Twilight: Eclipse" - bad fast-food for teenagers
"Expendables" - too many action heroes but no action at all
"Grown Ups" - bad comedy with actors thinking they are being funny

Special mention: all movies in 3D were bad. I boycotted all 3D movies. This "new" technology is being used excessively, it doesn't bring anything new neither improves the final result.
Watch "Avatar" in 3D and in 2D... then make your choice! ;-)

Let's see who will be the real "winners" next weekend, in the Razzies and the Oscar nights

Happy Year of the Rabbit

Another "new year" starts. Accordingly to the chinese calendar, the Rabbits are celebrating in 2011! And the Rabbit is the best! :-P

I was wondering how many famous rabbits are in history. Like Bugs Bunny, Roger Rabbit, Thumper (from Bambi), Raving Rabbids (from the videogame), White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland, not the Matrix movie), the Easter Bunny... and one of my favourites, the Duracell Bunny!! ahahah
Oh yes, there is the Playboy bunny too ;-)

Well, I believe it's going to be a very positive and crazy year, like all the rabbits mentioned above! ahahah

May the rabbit be with you! :-P

The Day of India and Australia

Each country has its own national day, but two big countries sharing the same date is a lot of coincidence.

Today, January 26th, is the national day in India and Australia. So I had two good excuses to celebrate and to have a drink to my indian and australian friends' health!

Cheers! Apki Lambi Umar Ke Liye!

More to come soon...

Crawling the walls

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? No, no and no! It's just a spiderman-wannabe.

Well, the year has just started and I already managed to do something different. I had an opportunity to try wall climbing. As an outdoor person as I am, I always prefer the real deal, like rafting in a real river, not like those artificial rapids you see during Olympic Games :)

Once I tried rock climbing and it was a different sensation. This time was indoor climbing but it can also be fun. One thing is sure: it's as tiring as outdoor climbling!
The artificial walls were installed in a big old warehouse, and some of the walls can be pretty high with horizontal sections! Amazing!

Let's see what I can find for a next time! ;-)

USA tour - Los Angeles and Hollywood

And there I was... in Hollywood. My main reason to land in Los Angeles was to visit the place where cinema became... and industry!

The french brothers Lumiere created the cinema... but the americans made a business out of it. Still, this stop in my USA tour would allow me to visit the major movie studios like Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures.

Before arriving to Hollywood I had my first adventure, a car adventure. Car rental in the States is more amusing than Europe. You request a car category and then it's up to you to choose any car you want from that category at the parking lot! I requested an economy car but the concept of "economic" can be weird when you look at the car sizes! :-P

After I got used to automatic gear, my GPS took me to the heart of Hollywood Boulevard. Here you find the famous Kodak Theater (where Oscar ceremony is held) and the also famous Walk of Fame... but for some reason I didn't find my star on it! eheh

On the hills it's impossible to miss the Hollywood sign. So I drove up there, almost to the top. I was taking picture on the middle of the stree when one nice lady showed me a walking path, so I could be as closer as possible. :)

If you have to visit one studio I would definitely recommend the Warner Bros tour. You can visit some sets, soundstages, take as many pictures as you want and even two museums included. On this day there were shooting the next Muppets' movie and a Beastie Boys' music video. And if you are a fan of the TV show "Friends" you also have the opportunity the visit the original set used for the Central Perk coffee house. But without Phoebe singing is not the same thing .... Smelly cat, smelly cat... :-P

At Sony Pictures you can't take pictures, at Paramount you don't enter many buildings/soundstages and Universal Pictures is a big amusement park (but hey, isn't that what movies are all about?). At least is an amusement park where the theme are the movies: The Mummy, Jaws, Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, The Simpsons, Shrek... the rides are fun! Not like those brainwash rides at Disney such as "It's a small world!" :-P

To relax from all this Hollywood fun, I headed to Venice beach... to catch some fresh air from the Pacific Ocean ;) It's nice to walk around this time of the year... no one goes to the beach, so it's great for pictures.
But don't feel weird if you smell something else in the air besides sea wind... because in California marijuana is legal for "medical reasons". You see many many "medical centers" with "doctors" who are there to help with your "pain". Basically you just need to say you have a pain of some kind and voilá, the "doctor" will prescribe you a "painkiller"! eheheh

Before leaving I had the opportunity to meet a real movie director. It was in one evening, at a Comedy Club that I met Daniel Stamm, the director of the recent "The Last Exorcism" movie.
I just missed the opportunity to star in a movie! eheh For a next time...

USA Tour: Los Angeles and Hollywood Album

My Hollywood experience had come to an end... it was a ride of lights and action! A true destination for any movie fan! :)

Next on my horizon it was the desert... and many many miles on the road for me. Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon were calling me... and extraterrestrials too ;)

First resolution for 2011

I was having my first breakfast in 2011, early in the morning, when I decided my first resolution for 2011! Well, more or less early, after all New Year's parties tend to be long ;-)
The city was quiet, everyone was still asleeping... so ideas come to my imagination more easily! eheh

Fireworks! I want a real firework show! For the past 4 years my New Year's Eves around France have been interesting, but there's no pyrotechnic shows.

I thought it was something specific to Paris, due to the crowds of people around town and for security reasons (security is always a good excuse for anything).

This year I decided to stop in another french town, Bordeaux, famous for its wines but not for New Year's :) You don't even see many people on the streets celebrating, which is something you can easily see in Paris! :)

In France fireworks are extremely popular on their national day, 14th July, when you can see pyro shows in almost any town.

I don't know where I'll be in the end of 2011, how I'm gonna be, with whom I'm gonna be... but there will be fireworks and a countdown to midnight! :)

But I got a feeling that 2011 is going to be a good year. It didn't start with lights in the sky, but with lots of positive attitude! :)

Now it's time to pull my sleeves and face this new year.

My last adventure of 2010 was driving back home for Christmas, between Paris and Porto... but that for another post.
Before that I have to finish organizing my USA tour pictures and put them online (another resolution! eheh)

And 2011 is the Year of the Rabitt... hmmm....