Samba Bill & the Road to Carnival – the complete series

Last year I was luck enough to perform during Carnival in Brazil at Rio de Janeiro’s famed Sambódromo as part of the Imperatriz Leopoldinense Samba School. Below is the five-part series I wrote about the journey.
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Raquel Arantes & Simone Bischoff – Genius I know

Quite often, I sit around the house reflecting on my own genius. These are times of focused contemplation. They are also times that usually take, say, 42 seconds or so.

Because all I need to do is look toward my family to see true genius. Take for instance my Mother-in-Law Raquel Arantes and my cousin Simone Bischoff.

Raquel is an extraordinarily gifted artist, and has developed a unique tool that is making the wine world swoon. Her Wine Aerator manages to be a breakthrough in a business as old as time itself.
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This one time, on a cruise ship …

[Author's Note: This was originally posted on this site on Jan. 8, 2008. But with my wife, Emilia, out of town and me deep in the throes of missing her (Don't let her know that, tho) I thought it would be a good time for a re-post]

I try not to mention my wife, Emilia, in my work because, well, I don’t know why. She sure as hell talks about me at her work. She has several bits down pat about the adventures of the silly American in a strange land.

Generally, however, I keep Emilia in the background. But I had mentioned a story in a blog post about her innocently (I’ll testify to that in court) about something we did on a cruise ship. I feel like this might be embarrassing for her, but I thought, “hey, If I just write a really sweet post about her first, I’d probably be ok on this one.” If there’s one thing they don’t teach you about marriage, it’s this – variables. Get to know them, and play them.

So anyway, this one time, on a cruise ship …

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Pelé’s eternal beauty

Forever the most famous person to come from Brazil, the great Pelé was beauty defined on the soccer pitch. At Life Magazine, they’ve unearthed some unseen photos of the greatest soccer player ever, in honor of the 40th anniversary of his 1,000th goal. Take a look here.

–WKW

Brazil’s Blackout – Rio, Sao Paulo and others in the dark, problem not close to being solved

MINAS GERAIS, Brazil – For those seeing the news about Brazil’s blackout, here’s what I can report: Itaipu Dam, which creates power for much of Brazil’s south, has 18 generators down, with just two working – and those two send energy to Paraguay.

In a telephone interview with a spokesman for Itaipu, Globo-TV anchors asked tough questions, for which the spokesman had few answers, saying that the wind may have caused the problems. The worst part – the spokesman said it could be “2-3 days” before power is restored. Though, the fact remains that the spokesman was exceedingly vague under the tough and intelligent questioning.

I’m located in the state of Minas Gerais, which is in the southeast of Brazil, and we still have power, including the capital city of Belo Horizonte.

There have been no reports of any outbreaks of violence or crime at this juncture.

Update: Itaipu gives power to a full 20% of Brazil. The person that runs Itaipu Dam – a state-run facility – was appointed to the Job by Brazilian President Lula. The blackout is also affecting the Nation’s capital of Brasilia, as well as other states.

Update II: Heavy storms were reported in the Paraná River giving credence to the Itaipu’s claims that the outage was “weather related.”

The Itaipu Dam works under an agreement with Paraguay and Brazil, with Brazil receiving the bulk of the power. Initially, the power for the Paraguay side also went off, but was quickly returned.

Update III: According to AFB, Power has been restored after four hours.

–WKW