Patricia

AUSTRALIA


Joined June 29th 2007

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Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paolo

November 16th 2009 10:17
It’s a relatively short distance from Avenida Paolista down to Ibirapuera Park, but it’s a long journey, both in terms of the country it covers, and in terms of the land that lies at the end of it.

Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paolo
Ibirapuera, Sao Paolo's Central Park


Between the noisy, fast-paced, crowded, densely built-up avenue to the quiet green spaces of Ibirapuera lie the fenced wilds of Trianon Park, smart blocks lined with luxury hotels, mean streets lined with the cardboard shelters of the homeless, a perilous roundabout and a massive stone monument to the building of Brazil.

Monument to the building of Brazil, Sao Paolo
The monument to the building of Brazil


Ibirapuera Park is to Sao Paolo as Central Park is to New York – an escape to nature in the middle of the city. I visited it at dusk and its paths and tracks were still teeming with joggers, skaters and cyclists. Kids played on its vast lawns. Couples strolled by its lakes. Its car parks were still filled with tour buses and tourists’ cameras flashed desperately in the fading light.

Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paolo
The lake in Ibirapuera Park


Ibirapuera is one of many Brazilian parks and gardens designed by the prolific and multi-talented Ernesto Burle Marx, whose career as a sculptor, painter, designer and landscape architect spanned almost the entire 20th century. It is for his gardens, however, that he is best known. Featuring indigenous plants and trees, Burle Marx created landscapes that were truly Brazilian.

Ibirapuera Park, Brazil
Native Brazilian plants and trees in Ibirapuera Park


Burle Marx often collaborated with the patriarch of modern Brazilian architecture Oscar Niemeyer, creating a lush, green setting for his somewhat stark buildings, like the Museu Afro Brasil which sits against a tiny slice of rainforest in Ibirapruera Park.

Oscar Niemeyer's Museu Afro Brasil, Sao Paolo
Museu Afro Brasil

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MASP, or Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo, on Avenida Paolista, was one of the highlights of my visit to Sao Paolo. And the highlight of my visit to MASP was a small exhibition in its echoing subterranean gallery. It was showing a selection of works by Candido Portinari, one of Brazil’s most important and prolific painters.

Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo
The courtyard at MASP


Most of the works in the exhibition were narratives of old bible stories – The Justice of Solomon, The trumpets of Jericho, Jeremiah’s Lament, Job and The Massacre of the Innocents - classic scenes with universal themes. But the raw and blatent emotions of relief, triumph, suffering, despair, resignation and terror, vividly drawn in the lines of the figures and the faces brought something quite new and even shocking to them. Other works showed Portinari’s own country, life and times. In North Eastern Migrants, Dead Child and Burial in a Hammock nothing was spared of the bleak lives and dreadful deaths suffered by refugees from the drought and famine in the North-East of Brazil in the 1930s.

The son of Italian immigrants, Portinari was born on December 29, 1903 and raised on a coffee plantation at Brodowski, near Sao Paolo. He studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, where, in 1928, he won a gold medal and a scholarship to study in Paris.

Returning to Brazil in 1930, Portinari set about producing the huge and wide-reaching body of work which can be seen in galleries, both in Brazil and around the world. His murals range from the family chapel in his childhood home in Brodowski to his panels Guerra e Paz (War and Peace) in the United Nations building in New York. His paintings cover and enormous range of subjects; his childhood, labourers in the city and countrside, refugees from Brazil's north-east, colonial history, portraits of family and leading Brazilians, book illustrations and decorations for tiles.

In 1947, Portinari stood as a senator for the Brazilian Communist party but fled to Uruguay during the persecution of Communists that followed shortly after. He returned to Brazil in 1951. After a decade of ill health he died of lead poisoning from his paints in 1961.

Candido Portinari lived and worked in one of the most artistically fertile periods in Brazil’s history. His contemporaries included the architect Oscar Niemeyer, with whom he collaborated, as well as the great master of Brazilian gardens Burle Marx.
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Avenida Paolista, the hub of Sao Paolo

November 11th 2009 19:17
Twenty three kilometres of the Castelo Branco Highway link peaceful, sheltered Alphaville to frantic, edgy downtown Sao Paolo. Avenida Paolista is the main drag and the hub of South American commerce. It’s a parade of 21st century global business towers interspersed with the occasional beautiful colonial relic.

Avenida Paolista, Sao Paolo
The towers of Avenida Paolista


Trianon Park, a legacy of old Sao Paolo, occupies a block roughly halfway down the Avenue. A small slice of the wild, it looks oddly out of place in this concrete jungle. Palms and plants of Triffidian size and appearance press against its wrought iron fences as if straining to escape and retake the city. Armed guards defend the park against invasion by the poor skinny, ragged homeless kids who run wild in Sao Paolo’s streets.

The street kids are never far away. They hold noisy and chaotic court, across the road from Trianon Park, in the open space under the Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo.

Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo
Under the Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo


Designed by Lina Bo Bardi, MASP, as it is familiarly known, is a Sao Paolo landmark and a star among modern Brazilian buildings. The concrete and glass cube, supported on massive red beams, dominates the mid-section of Avenida Paolista.

Founded in 1947 by “the King of Brazil” philanthropist and Media Magnate Assis Chateaubriand and Italian Professor and Art Critic Pietro Maria Bardi, the MASP art collection is the largest and most impressive in South America. It includes centuries of European Art along with African and Asian collections. There are also antiquities and decorative arts from around the world. The South American and Brazilian collections are highlights of MASP. All the Latin American greats are there, including personal favourites Torres Garcia and Diego Rivera, Di Cavalcanti and the poignant and beautiful Candido Portinari.

MASP is a non-profit making private institution and its entire collection is listed as Brazilian National Heritage.

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Alphaville, a village in Sao Paulo

November 9th 2009 12:52
As our plane approaches Sao Paolo, my face is pressed to the window. The high-rise begins abruptly and continues. On and on it goes, mile after mile, row upon row of mammoth high-rise buildings, colossal concrete slabs, lined up like tombstones in a giant graveyard. If there are streets, cars and people in the narrow crevasses between them, they are lost, fathoms deep, in shadow. I’m struggling to imagine life down there, in that vast, harsh, unrelenting, cement and steel landscape. I’m struggling to imagine how Sao Paolo works as a city.

Alphaville, Sao Paolo
Alphaville

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Cidade do Samba, Rio de Janeiro

October 12th 2009 09:07
In September 2005, when Rio’s twelve Special Samba Schools moved into Cidade do Samba, the spectacular new complex of workshops down in the Gamboa dockland district, it was the realization of a long-held dream. But it was also a further affirmation of the place of the Samba as the country’s national dance and of Carnaval as Rio’s premier event. It was one more step in Rio’s, if not Brazil’s, historical journey.

Cidade do Samba, Rio de Janeiro
Cidade do Samba

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Two great Rio restaurants

October 10th 2009 11:20
It sometimes happens in restaurants, that the choicest cuisine is completely undone by poor service, unpleasant surroundings, or a dull atmosphere. But sometimes too, the fare is completely outdone by exceptional service, fascinating surroundings or a fabulous atmosphere. And so it happened, that in two quite different Rio restaurants, the most succulent churrasco and the ultimate caipirinha were almost totally eclipsed by the service, the décor and the ambiance.

Zozo's restaurant Rio de Janeiro
Zozo

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Caipirinha - Brazil's national drink

October 5th 2009 04:10
While feijoada is Brazil’s national dish, the caipirinha is its national drink. The two make great companions. The cold, tart, light cocktail is a fabulous foil to the rich, hot, salty feijoada. However the caipirinha also goes brilliantly with churrasco, with the little crisp fried fish served in the beachside kiosks or with the simple spiced nuts peddled by the kids from the favelas. As a stand alone it’s sensational. At home, in the restaurant, in the bar or on the beach, it never fails to “create a sensual and relaxed atmosphere” according to Ernesto Britto of Clube da Caipirinha.

Beachside Bar, Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro
This little beachside bar, opposite the Sheraton at Barra Beach makes a delicious Caipirinha

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One of the great delights of Brazil is its food.

Rio de Janeiro from Corcovado
Rio de Janeiro from Corcovado

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" New Zealand is made up of two main islands and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. Not to forget Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland. The Auckland city is located on the North Island and the main city in the South Island is Christchurch. Both Islands have lots of vast open spaces and mountainous terrain.

New Zealand's west coast
A wild west coast Auckland Beach

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New Zealand is famous as a country that offers everything; stunning beaches, magnificent mountains, pristine lakes, wild rivers, lush bush, rich farmland, 21st century cities, quaint country towns, pure fresh food, luxury hotels, sumptuous spas and gourmet restaurants. But it is the Maori culture that sets it apart from any other place on earth and makes it truly unique. TIME Unlimited’s Maori Culture Tours are a chance not just to see, but to live that culture.

The Hongi, the traditional Maori greeting
The Hongi

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Recent Comments

Comment by Patricia
on My darling Stella is gone

October 10th 2009 11:28
Fog, I'm so sorry. My thoughts and prayers are with you at this sad time.

Comment by Patricia
on What won’t you eat on a date?

October 6th 2009 07:43
Definately agree with your list but I'd also add curry since I had problems with watering eyes and a red nose once on a date and then there's chocolate sauce. I once dropped a huge blob on white dress and had to carry my handbag at crotch level all evening.

Comment by Patricia
on Feijoada, churrasco and acai, eating in Brazil

October 6th 2009 07:35
Yes, Wilson they are eye-catching and they serve great food and drink too which they cook up in underground kitchens. Incredible!

Sounds fun, Wilson! But wasn't Keith and weren't you for that matter a little scared you'd break a leg before the wedding?

Comment by Patricia
on Miss Universe 2009 alternate finalists

October 6th 2009 07:28
They're all absolutely beautiful! Great post!

Comment by Patricia
on Pico Iyer Talks Postmodernism

October 6th 2009 07:17
Thanks for introducing me to Pico lyer. Yes, yes, yes and ditto to all he says here. I'm hooked.

Comment by Patricia
on Feijoada, churrasco and acai, eating in Brazil

October 6th 2009 06:50
Churrasco in Sydney! Brilliant! Another reason to visit! I don't know about lemongrass juice in Brazil, but it sounds great! Thanks for your comment!

Comment by Patricia
on Feijoada, churrasco and acai, eating in Brazil

October 6th 2009 06:48
Thanks for your comment Lara! Brazil is great fun and the as you say makes it more enticing!

Comment by Patricia
on Caipirinha - Brazil's national drink

October 6th 2009 06:45
I 've never tried cachaca on the rocks, Raoul, but your recipe sounds great! I was told that Cachaca 51 is the best brand. Is it true do you know?

Comment by Patricia
on Caipirinha - Brazil's national drink

October 6th 2009 06:42
Yes, Wilson, isn't ever!