RAPIDINHAS

Movies

Real Reel Sex

In Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's last movie, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise had to use a sex therapist to help them with their on-screen sex scene. For a 20-minute real sex act, Júlia Lemmertz, 35, and Alexandre Borges, 33, also wife and husband in real life, only needed the assistance of choreographer Angel Viana. The scenes of passionate sex open director Aluizio Abranches's just-released first movie, Um Copo de Cólera.

"This is not the way we do it in our own bed," explained Lemmertz, who's been married for six years to Borges. "The aesthetics in the film were much more elaborate." Based on Raduan Nassar's book of the same name, Um Copo de Cólera, at 70 minutes, is as concise as the novel. The dry and terse prose of Nassar was transposed quite literally to the screen.

The film tells the story of a couple who go to a ranch in a small town in São Paulo. In the morning, after a night of inspired sex, the man discovers the damage ants have done to his hedge and starts a violent—at times extremely violent—discussion. The book, written in the 70's during the military dictatorship in Brazil, is often seen as a metaphor for political repression, with the woman representing the oppressed masses.

Nassar is the author of very few books, who takes years between one work and the next. He has called literature that "little thing", and has said that "there is no literary creation that can be compared to raising chickens."

Literature

High Porno

"What's the name of what we are producing? Let's say, a socio-historic-literary-porno testimony, ha-ha."
From A Casa dos Budas Ditosos by João Ubaldo Ribeiro.

A just-released pornographic book is provoking a furor in Brazil, but it's the cheers of the media that is being mostly heard. The author is none other than one of the 40 "immortals" from the venerable Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Academy of Letters). Baiano (from Bahia state) João Ubaldo Ribeiro, 58, is the author of some spicy and sexually charged novels. Nothing that compares, however, to his last work, A Casa dos Budas Ditosos (The House of the Blissful Buddhas).

Unabashedly pornographic, Ribeiro's new book tells the story in the first person of a woman with a voracious and superimaginative sexual appetite. The book was written at the request of Objetiva publishing house which was putting together the collection Plenos Pecados (Whole Sins), dealing with the seven capital sins. Ribeiro was initially asked to write about laziness, one sin all Baianos are supposed to commit. He didn't accept the stereotype, though, and opted for a more challenging sin: luxury.

In an often used literary trick, the author tells us in the foreword that the book is the transcript he made of several cassette tapes that were delivered to him by C.L.B, a 68-year-old woman. Having read that the author had been invited to write about luxury, C.L.B. left at the reception desk of the writer's apartment building a box with tapes and a note telling of her intention to reveal her most daring and intimate sexual experiences.

Ribeiro, now living in a penthouse on Leblon beach, a neighborhood on Rio's south zone, confessed to having blushed at many of the sexual experiences described. He also confessed that some of the practices described in the book he didn't even know existed before finding them while surfing the Internet. The author didn't dare use everything he read, though.

Rio's daily Jornal do Brasil celebrated the novel's arrival with an appeal to more sophisticated readers: "Poets, singers, intellectuals, come running. You finally have the opportunity to read a pornographic book without feeling guilty for consuming your time with fifth-class literature."

For Ribeiro this was the realization of an old dream: "I was always fascinated by the idea of writing a pornographic book with some literary quality. This is a very difficult genre." Now he is afraid people are going to start thinking the female character is being used as a spokesperson for his own philosophy.

The writer has been playing with the idea of writing a spicier book for a few years now, since a congress for writers in Canada when authors read from their own work. It was there that he found an older woman who confessed to him that she was a writer of pornographic books. He talked recently about this encounter: "I told her that it was very hard to write a pornographic book with some literary quality. One of these days I will write one, I thought. And this idea continued to occupy a little corner of my mind."

Lacking any morals, C.L.B. had all kinds of sexual experiences including incest, bestiality and sex with children. For her, normal are experiences without any sexual hang-ups or inhibitions. She intersperses her sexual exploits with philosophical thoughts and citations by Shakespeare, Robbe-Grillet, Lacan, Freud, Heidegger and Plato. C.L.B. believes she is doing God's work by fully living her sexual fantasies. She says, "I've done what He created me to do."

What about the title? "As any good title with literary quality this one means nothing," explains João Ubaldo Ribeiro. The Blissful Buddhas are a statue of a female and a male Buddha having sex that the old woman who signed the book bought in Thailand. Ribeiro was inspired by a book on sex he got as a gift and that spoke about a temple called House of the Blissful Buddhas.

Immoral
fragments

"No one was born with a rigid sexual role, everybody is everything in a bigger or smaller degree, the rest is fear of ridiculous and absurd ghosts, that never sustained themselves on their misty little legs."

"We live according to rules and standards for which no human being was made."

"Exclusive heterosexuality, limitation. Exclusive homosexuality, limitation. Bisexuality, normal... Pansexuality, the future, the chance of universalizing love's aggregating force."

"I didn't sin against luxury. The one who sins is he who doesn't do what he was created to do."

"Taking it on your thighs is something that requires know-how to be decently enjoyed. The woman has to train her posture, to be sure that she will reach an orgasm—even more so when the man is semi-adolescent and comes in two tenths of a second."

"I have a fixation in the oral phase, cannibalistic oral phase naturally; I adore every form of ingestion. At that time I was already hooked on this kind of fixation, today this is perfectly clear."

"The devirginating was really a great day.... Virginity you only lose once, and since I had created the opportunity to get rid of it the way I had imagined, I would not waste such full satisfaction."

Crime

Disarming Rio

"Rio, lower your weapon!" With this catchy slogan, Rio de Janeiro's governor Anthony Garotinho has started a campaign to reduce the number of weapons in the state and in turn reduce the crime rate. He promises the effort will be serious and concrete and not just a new publicity stunt. Garotinho wants to forbid the sale of weapons in the entire state. According to insiders, today there are approximately one million weapons—legal and illegal—in the state of Rio in the hands of civilians. Numbers from Rio's Secretaria de Segurança Pública (Bureau of Public Security) reveal that the number of legal weapons is about 600,000. Garotinho is sponsoring a bill by Assemblyman Carlos Minc from the leftist PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers' Party). Minc's proposal forbids commercialization of pistols, revolvers, and bullets, among other devices.

The governor has threatened to impose sanctions on weapons stores in case the project is not approved. One way of doing this would be by not renewing or issuing new permits for this kind of business. "And how about the constitution?", a reporter asked. "Unconstitutional is shooting all over," he answered.

Rubem César Fernandes, executive secretary of the peoples' empowerment movement Viva Rio and one of the leaders of the antigun initiative, has made a special appeal to women to participate in the campaign by ridding their own homes of weapons. He said, "By and large, women fear weapons and they are the ones who suffer the consequences of the violence by losing husbands, sons, and fathers because they were armed."

Garotinho has compared past governmental efforts to disarm the population to drying ice. "The only way for us to get a positive result," he said, "is by eliminating half of the weapons we have now."

There will be no new weapon registration. Surprise traffic blitzes will be intensified. Every legal weapon found will have to be re-registered and illegal ones will be destroyed. On the other hand, the Bureau of Security will create a Center of Intelligence in order to find how illegal weapons fall in the hands of civilians.

According to sub-secretary of Security Luís Eduardo Soares, the initiative inspired by New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani is to be taken seriously: "The government and police will actively participate. The basic idea is zero tolerance for weapons."

Health

What's Wrong
With the Kids

In São Paulo, Brazil's richest city, 46.5 percent of the children who are five years old or younger suffer from anemia. This is the same rate nationwide for children up to three years of age. And as the São Paulo case illustrates, the problem that does not only affect the poor has become worse in recent years. Escola Paulista de Medicina, an elite medical school from São Paulo, has been studying the situation since the 70's when it pioneered the study of anemia in the country. They found at that time that 23 percent of the five-year-old or younger children had anemia, a lack of iron in the blood.

When the study was repeated in 1985 by Núcleo de Pesquisas Epidemiológicas em Nutrição e Saúde (Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health) from USP (Universidade de São Paulo) the rate of child anemia had increased to 35.5 percent. The index is even worse with younger children. Currently in São Paulo, 67 percent of babies between six and 24 months of age suffer from anemia. And the problem starts with mothers, 30 percent of whom are also anemic.

Is there a special reason for these alarming rates? Carlos Augusto Monteiro, who leads the USP research team, thinks he has the answer. In an interview with Brasília's daily, Correio Braziliense, he said: "This increase can be related to the type of today's diet which is based mainly on milk." Milk, unless it's mother's milk, he says, does not contain iron even though it has most of the nutrients needed by a child.

The Health Ministry knows what to do, but complains there are not enough resources. Despite this, it has just started a program to guarantee that 300,000 children in 512 municipalities in nine northeastern states get weekly iron supplements.

Music

Betrayeds'
Anthem

A composer, who for more than three decades has been singing of unrequited love and betrayed lovers, has become an unexpected sensation and cult singer among the Brazilian middle-class in the South with a song he composed and has been performing for 14 years. The tune is called "Garçon" and the composer is the Recifense (from Recife, state of Pernambuco) raised in Rio, Reginaldo Rossi, 54.

Rossi sings a kind of campy music known as brega, whose lyrics tell stories with such exaggerated colors and drama that they become funny and cult. He went back to his hometown Recife in the 70's looking for the applause and fame he was not getting in the Rio-São Paulo axis and there became King of the Romantic Song in the Northeast. Rossi had started composing songs for the Jovem Guarda movement. He is the author, for example, of "O Pão" (The Hunk), which in 1966 became a hit sung by Sérgio Murilo.

The recent fame of the singer/composer came through Bahia. It was the singing of "Garçon" by celebrities such as Beijo and Cheiro de Amor bands as well as Jamil e uma Noites and Ricardo Chaves that has spread the tune as a legitimate Baiano sound and given it extra appeal.

Rossi has been enjoying his sudden fame. In a recent interview with Rio's daily Jornal do Brasil he said: "Before, in every bar party people would sing `Boemia, aqui me tens de regresso...' (Bohemia, you have me back here). Today everyone sings "Garçon."" He also explained the popularity of the tune: "It expresses in a simple way the drama that everyone from the trashman to the President faces one day: the pain to be betrayed by the woman he loves."

With admitted flourishes for dramatic impact, Rossi introduces his songs on shows or CDs with a text that explains the origin of the tune. Before singing "Garçon" he tells that he used to be a "scoundrel who betrayed his little woman three times a week" until he finds her in bed with Ronaldinho, who says: "I've already scored 15 goals." He doesn't commit any violence against the man or the woman but goes to a bar, where he composes the song, which gets the immediate verdict: "It will be a smashing hit".

To the press Rossi gives another version. According to it, he was once visited by a singer friend who complained to be without money and to have been betrayed by his wife. The song was done in three days. The composer felt he had a hit on his hands, but resisted the temptation to sing it himself. But that's what he ended up doing anyway when the producer felt that his friend didn't have the right voice for that kind of song.

The new version of "Garçon" released last year by Sony has already sold around 300,000 copies. The CD also contains, among other tunes, "A Raposa e as Uvas" (The Fox and the Grapes), French-titled "Mon Amour, Meu Bem, Ma Femme" (My Love, My Sweetie, My Wife) and "Tô Doidão" (I'm Stir Crazy).

Rossi attributes his success to his sloppy way of doing his shows. "My show has no scenario, no direction, no dancers. I get on stage not knowing what I am going to sing. That's why I've been singing for 30 years."

Garçon Reginaldo Rossi Garçon, aqui nessa mesa de bar Você já cansou de escutar Centenas de casos de amor Garçon, no bar todo mundo é igual Meu caso é mais um, é banal Mas preste atenção, por favor Saiba que o meu grande amor Hoje vai se casar E mandou uma carta pra me avisar Deixou em pedaços o meu coração E pra matar a tristeza, só mesa de bar Quero tomar todas Vou me embriagar Se eu pegar no sono Me deite no chão Garçon, eu sei que eu tô enchendo o saco Mas todo bebum fica chato Valente, e tem toda razão Garçon, mas eu só quero chorar Eu vou minha conta pagar Por isso eu lhe peço atenção

Waiter   Waiter, here on this bar table You're tired of listening To hundreds of love stories Waiter, in the bar everyone is equal My case is just another one, it's banal But pay attention, please See, my great love Is getting married today And sent me a letter to tell me Leaving my heart in pieces And to ease the sadness, only a table of a bar I want to drink all I'm getting drunk If I fall asleep Lay me down on the floor Waiter, I know I am getting on your nerves But all drunks become pests Bully, and are always right Waiter, but all I want is to cry I'm going to pay my bill So I ask your attention

Behavior

Miracle
Express

Pure capitalism? Printing shop owners say it is not, but a Saint Expedito fever that has been sweeping the nation has become a blessing for them. Three million santinhos (cards with the stamp of the saint) were printed in one month by a São Paulo printer alone, which is conveniently called Santo Expedito. The fad is being fueled by an economic crisis that has seen record unemployment, recession, and the fear of a return of unmanageable inflation.

Similar to a chain letter but in a much larger scale, people who are granted a grace are supposed to print 1,000 of the santinhos, which bear the necessary prayer to get a grace as well as the warning that 1,000 new santinhos need to be printed. The little cards with the saint can be seen everywhere: at shop counters, private companies, hospitals, and churches.

"Pure economic profiteering, just a marketing strategy from the printing shops," says Father Fernando Altemeyer, from the São Paulo Metropolitan Curia . In an interview with Jornal da Tarde, Altemeyer said there is no evidence that there was a Saint Expedito, who is celebrated on April 19. These doubts, however, did not prevent Saint Expedito from becoming the patron saint of the military police.

Who is the saint depicted in a red cape holding a crucifix and a palm branch? According to some biographers, he was an Armenian legionnaire who in 303 AD was decapitated by Roman Emperor Diocletian, accused of being a Christian. In accordance with his name the saint is best known for expediting things, granting graces faster than his heavenly colleagues.

(The santinho's back)

Prayer to Saint Expedito

Feast April 19. Celebrated every 19

If you have any PROBLEM OF DIFFICULT SOLUTION and need URGENT HELP, ask Saint Expedito for help, who is the saint of businesses that need ready solution and whose invocation is never too late.

Prayer - My Saint Expedito of the just and urgent causes, help me in this hour of distress and despair, intercede for me before Our Lord Jesus Christ! You who are a warrior saint, you who are the saint of the distressed, you who are the saint of the despaired, you who are the saint of the urgent causes, protect me, help me, give me strength, courage and serenity. Heed my request: "Make the request." Help me to overcome these difficult hours, protect me against all those who can harm me, protect my family, heed my request urgently. Give me back peace and tranquility. I will be grateful for the rest of my life and I will take your name to all those who have faith. Thank you. Pray 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, and make the sign of the cross.

Know the Church of Saint Expedito

Rua Quedas, 564 - Parada Inglesa - São Paulo - SP

Printed at Editora Santo Expedito

R$38 one thousand

Tel: (011) 69511.2099

or call free 0800.55.1904

Free delivery at your home in all of Brazil

As a way of saying thanks I ordered the printing and distributed one thousand of these prayers to spread the benefits of the great Saint Expedito. You too should order the printing soon after you make your request.

Health

Pee
Therapy

Father Durval dos Santos is a defender of alternative medicine and the author of best-selling books Rejuvenescer Comendo e Bebendo (Rejuvenating by Eating and Drinking), As Plantas (The Plants), Meus Amores e Curas (My Loves and Cures), and Curas com Urina (Cures with Urine), and others. He also does and recommends something that most people would not consider very religious: drinking urine daily to cure and prevent a series of diseases.

According to dos Santos, among the afflictions that urine can cure are baldness, impotence, chronic hepatitis and even cancer. He cites close to five dozen other diseases curable with urine. What's good in the popular pee? It contains lots of good stuff, including vitamins, hormones, mineral salts and amino acids, says the priest. To keep healthy you need to drink half a liter a day. To avoid serious diseases the dose increases to one liter and to cure cancer the amount to be consumed becomes elephantine: up to five liters of the yellow liquid daily.

Father Durval and others who defend this practice are reviled by doctors who consider urine plain and useless trash eliminated by the body. The ingestion of the liquid according to them is dangerous and can cause gastritis and lack of appetite.

The priest continues to find new uses for urine, though. He preaches, for example, that the product is an excellent skin cream. He believes that the human body produces no garbage and that everything produced is for self-defense. Nose secretion, for example, would be good to heal wounds. The same goes for saliva. The priest is now studying the therapeutic properties of human feces.

In an interview with Goiânia (capital of Goiás state) daily Diário da Manhã, the controversial priest declared: "I drink urine everyday, naturally, why should I waste it?"

Nation

Free With
Catches

The Brazilian Catholic Church was the organization in charge of issuing birth, marriage, and death certificates in Brazil almost until the end of the Empire. It was D. Pedro II, who in March 1888, just one year before being deposed, turned these registrations into a public service. The task, however, for lack of state structure soon went into private hands with the understanding that the service would be provided at no cost. It never was. A law passed last year reaffirmed this obligation, but again the legislation has been mostly ignored.

In Brasília, the nation's capital, for example, the owners of the ten cartórios de registro civil (civilian registration notary publics) have adapted the law to their own taste. There, only the poor get the birth or death certificate for free. And how do they know you are poor? The person has to declare that he or she cannot pay. In an interview with Brasília's daily Correio Braziliense, Emival Moreira, president of Associação de Notários e Registradores do DF (Anoreg-DF), said, `'While the rich pay for the poor we will continue to work. If not, everybody will be without a certificate." According to Moreira, these certificates bring two thirds of all the money collected monthly by the cartórios.

In bigger cities, some notaries that perform functions like offering escrow and trust deed services are subsidizing birth and death certificates, but in smaller towns across the country the obligation of free certificates is being completely ignored. An amendment to the law creating a fund to compensate losses was presented last year, but it was vetoed by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

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