BRAZZIL - News from Brazil - RAPIDINHAS - FEBRUARY 96 -


Rapidinhas
February 96

Dara and Júlio Falcão
Sex on Globo TV

Soap

The Last Virgin

Explode Coração (Explode, Heart) the latest prime-time novela (soap opera) from Globo TV continues to generate controversy and to raise its share of public. The feuilleton, which mixes unscrupulous businessmen, power-hungry beautiful women, Internet lovers, gypsy families and even a smart and macho transsexual, was taken to Court.

Mirian Stanescon, a lawyer and gypsy, who helped novela writer Gloria Perez compose the main character gypsy Dara and who believes to be Perez's inspiring muse, went to Justice to prevent the showing of a scene in which Dara loses her virginity out of wedlock. Stanescon, who says she was a virgin when she married at 32 a cousin of her disputes that contends that the gypsy tradition bans sex before the marriage.

Initially the justice upheld the argument but then Globo won an appeal. The polemic episode ended up being aired on January 3, and thanks to all the free publicity, soared to 52 points (12 more than the average rate that the novela was having) on the IBOPE, the main Brazilian TV-rating system.

Dara, interpreted by Tereza Seiblitz, was deflowered by businessman Júlio Falcão (actor Edson Celulari) on a deserted beach, at night. Stanescon says she approached Perez to try to convince her to scrap the sex scene. According to the lawyer, the only answer she got was: "Gosh, gypsy, I am not killing her. All she is going to do is to screw."

Prosperity

Accidental tourist, not

If there were some Brazilians left in Brazil the latest holiday season that's because there are 160 million of them and there were not enough planes to take them all. Only in two weeks in December 150,000 Brazilians went for a trip outside de country. According to ABAV (Associação Brasileira de Agentes de Viagem), in 1995, a total of 3.1million people did the same thing.

This last year two in every 100 Brazilians traveled abroad. Compare this to 1970 when only two in each 1,000 Brazilians went overseas. The main reason for this is the strong currency. A trip to New York is cheaper now than to a domestic location.

With this, Florida's Disney World, for instance, has seen an influx from Brazil that's bigger than from any other country but Canada and England.

Roaring status

After spending the New Year's holidays in Angra dos Reis, a close-to-Rio paradise for the wealthy, Richard Boechat, better known as Swann, wrote in his social column in Rio's daily O Globo: "The sky reminded us of Vietnam during the Nixon era." He was referring to the Francis Coppola's movie Apocalypse Now to describe the favorite way of transportation for the Carioca (from Rio) and Paulista (from São Paulo) rich people nowadays: the helicopter. Keeping up with the well-to-do Joneses now means to have the last version of the Esquilo or Jet Ranger, the favorite models of choppers. But for some to those belonging to the so-called Nova Sociedade Emergente (Emergent New Society), NSE for short, using a helicopter is not only exhibitionism. It's a protection against the increasing wave of kidnapping and an escape from interminable traffic jams in the big cities.

Drinkable art

Compared to king of silk-screen prints American pop artist Andy Warhol and called "prince of contemporary pop art" by some Yankee critics, Miami-based Brazilian-born Romero Britto, 30, is happening big time. The Swedish royal family, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former American presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush, all have works by Britto, but now he is going to the masses. Eleven of his paintings will be shown all over the world in one billion cans of Pepsi. You can't hope for a bigger public. The so-called Pepsi collection has already been released in Brazil.

Harder to get

Since January 15 Brazilians saw their limit to buy foreign products by mail lower from $1,000 to $500 and taxes on imported product were raised to 60%. Once again, in its effort to open Brazil to foreign markets, the government succumbed to the domestic industry pressure. This is the third time the rules change for those willing to import gadgets. According to the previous rules, products up to $50 paid no tribute. After that the rate was 40%. The new taxes are applied to any amount and a $100 purchase for example will cost $160.

Booked for 2000

Ad agency DM9 has surprised the competition by reserving space in the covers of the main newspapers and magazines for January 1, 2000. To make it a round package, the publicity company has also booked commercial time with Globo, SBT and Bandeirantes TV networks for their change-of-millennium schedule. Daily O Estado de S. Paulo and Globo TV, among others, have already letters of intention committing themselves to the DM9 agency. "We cannot run the risk of being without ad-space in a occasion in which so many sponsors will be dying to celebrate with big projects the arrival of Century 21," said Affonso Serra, one of the company's directors.

By the buckets

The ice cream buffet mania started in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) a few summers ago. But now it has spread north to São Paulo and Rio. The self-service places work the same way as the so-called restaurants by the kilo. People serve themselves from a large counter with 30 or more choices of ice cream and close to 100 different toppings. A pound goes for around $4 and it's much cheaper than buying by the scoop. One of the new places in São Paulo is called Ice Tit Bit. And the company Zero Grau (Zero Grade) has opened 12 news ice cream parlors in four months.

Paper chase

The President and Brazilian congressmen don't have to go to Rio or Brasília's outskirts anymore to see how the poorest people are living. Now they have the homeless on their own backyard. Close to 200 people built a favela (shanty town) with 50 shacks just behind the Supreme Court building, which is across the street from Palácio do Planalto, the President's headquarters. In an ironic homage to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso the place was named Favela FHC. The district federal's government has tried to get rid of the nuisance, but it can find no place to put these homeless who survive by collecting waste paper from the buildings around and selling them for 10¢ a pound.

The dollar rally

It seems that the rule that one real cannot be more than one dollar is going to be dropped soon. It's expected that the real will cross the $1 barrier between May and July. At the start of the Plano Real in 1994, the parity of the new currency with the dollar was presented as a guarantee for the plan's success. Now, with the real consolidated and the inflation still in the two digits, it would be suicidal to continue to maintain the real stronger than its richer cousin the green back.

Slang

Say the right THUNG

The flirting and mating season is on in Brazil. With temperatures due to summer and Carnaval at their highest and inhibition and clothing at their lowest, passions are blooming. Now is the time to catar, dar um lets, azarar, morder and rasgar. Only these words for those who understand Portuguese don't mean what you've learned they mean. It's time to learn some X-generation slang to survive the romance scene.
In Rio:
azarar (literally to bring bad luck) to flirt
dar mole (lit. to give soft) same as azarar
é o bicho (it's the beast) that's the best
morder (to bite) to romance without commitment
pagar o mico (to pay the monkey) to be duped, to incur blame
pegar (to pick up) to philander
soltar o freio (to release the brake) to go all the way
In Salvador (Bahia):
Armar (to set up) same as morder
Jogar catiopil to screw
Pé de boi (ox foot) ugly woman
Recife (Pernabuco):
Cevar (to fatten) same as azarar
Tirar casquinha (to scrape the veneer) to heavily pet
In São Paulo:
Catar (to pick up) same as armar
Dar uns fight (to give a fight) screw
Pagar um pau (to pay a stick) same as azarar
Rasgar (to rip) to seduce
Ralo (drain) heavy petting

TV

Pleem, pleem!

Often on the cutting edge of imagination, the world's fourth largest TV network (only behind the American three sisters) Brazil's Rede Globo has created a series of anthological micro-films to start and end their commercial breaks.

Twenty four of them were aired in 1995 and 18 news were just announced for the new year. Globo tells its viewers when it's time to run to the refrigerator or to come back fast through the presentation of the company's logo and a sound that's better known as "plim plim".

The story boards were made by the best Brazilian cartoonists, including Miguel Paiva, Ique, Borjalo, Agê and Ziraldo, and different conductors were invited to make the sound track for the little animated masterpieces. The stories last from 5 to 15 seconds. In one of them there is a group of cowboys in an Old West saloon rowdily drinking. Suddenly, silence. It's time to watch TV. They press the remote control on button and the "plim plim" sounds.

In another, a man in a bar tries everything to woo a woman. A rose, a pair of earrings, even a diamond don't make the trick. But when he offers her a condom, her eyes get brighter and she extends her hand to take it. That' s when the "plim plim" clangs.

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