These past weeks have been quite busy, and this seems to be a pattern for the rest of my life now. Well at least during the school year.

Every week something important appears and it needs to be adressed. Be it at the University or with some other stuff. Finding time to just sit down and relax has been quite difficult. But life’s like this. I guess.

At least I get to listen to some music. A lot of music actually. It takes about an hour to go to the University and another hour and a half to come back home. From monday to friday. I spend at least two and a half hours per day listening to music. And that is awesome!

Lately I have been going back to my roots and getting some state of the art vanguard music. Two opposite sides, nothing in between.

Radio 1 is definetly the best radio out there, but OiFM, from Brasil, is also good. In Radio 1 I listen online to Zane Lowe, In new DJ’s we trust, and Jo Wiley’s programme. OiFM has Back to Black, a show that sports the best of black music, recent or not. All of these shows are available online. Just Google it, or as they say these days, Bing it.

Music is the fuel of my life, and to be fairly honest I enjoy listening to music more than I enjoy eating. This week a friend of mine said “I dunt care much bout music, tough”. I mean, how can anyone say something like that? Music is one of the best things the human being has created. If you don’t enjoy it then you just haven’t found something that suits you.

Talking about fuel, David Guetta’s “Fuck Me I’m Famous” has been a must have every week. This, toguether with BBC Radio 1′s In new DJ’s we trust, have been the vanguard part of the music I’ve been listening. Arctic Monkeys and John Mayer have been the doesn’t-get-old part.

In july I am going to have one of the best vacations ever. I’ll leave for São Paulo in the 17th, and then for Campinas in the 21st. After spending some time with my family, I’ll leave for Porto Alegre on the 25th. I be taking part into the biggest gathering of people interested in Geography, my area of studies.

This is going to be totally awesome! Vacations in São Paulo, the best city in this country (in my opinion), which has a lot to offer. I’ll visit every single place I have been craving to go in the last two years. (conceived places, now that I learned a little bit of humanist geography)

Now, changing the subject, I started watching Glee with my father. The first ten episodes, all in one not-rainy sunday. It’s kinda nice. But I have some serious issues with the plot. Come on, if the good guy is that stupid then he deserves to pay for that child. Spoiler alert (too late I guess).

Tomorrow I have a field trip downtown at night. I hope I can get home at 10pm. Uncommon Place will air on Multishow, and it sports London. I so want to watch it!

Night everyone!

On my playlist for tomorrow: Madonna – Hard Candy; David Guetta – Pop Life; Duffy – Rockferry; Dashboard Confessional – Alter The Ending; One Republic – Waking Up.

I am attending ten different disciplines at the university. And I still have my job as an extra-mural activity colleger. I am very happy with my activities this semester. Life is not perfect yet, but we are getting close. For it to be perfect I need a fit body, and an apartment in Copacabana. Plus a huge trust fund.

This semester, well, at least until now, I have nothing to complain about the teachers, unlike last year. Every single one of them seems to be very professional, and while not quite up to the utmost desirable standarts, they seem good enough, given what I’ve worked with before. One of them, whom I have quite liked, is unfortunately not staying for good. That is a shame, but, I guess it happens. One of them is quite nuts, but it seems that everyone in the philosophy area behaves in such fashion.

Later this year we are holding a simposium in the subjects of space and culture applyed to geography. Therefore there is a lot of things to do in order for it to run smoothly. As of now, it’s all light work, but more experienced people say it will get rough.

In late july, there will be a congress in Porto Alegre, which will gather all geographers of Brazil. I am definetly going, and I want to present a paper in which I tell my experience as a colleger right from the first semester. My friends say it will be accepted, but I have my doubts.

Now, enough with the life stuff, let’s go to the music stuff. Lately I have been completely in love with Florence + The Machine. She is from out of this world. I love her voice. It is so good to hear it. And some of her music, even tough quite meaningless, is good. My favourites are “My boy builds coffins” and “Cosmic love”. The singles are also good. Wikipedia it if your curious. My favourite song in terms of lyrics is “I’m not calling you a liar” (so don’t lie to me). And I just love to hear her british accent saying “liar”.

Yesterday I went to Franz Ferdinand concert in Rio. It was in the Lapa neighnourhood. An iconic area of the city, known for it’s cultural importance. Full of restaurants, bars, clubs, and concert venues. I love Lapa. The concert was held at Fundição Progresso. It has a good structure for concerts like this, but in my opinion it was a bit too crowded, and it could do with some air conditioning. But that is not important. What matters is that the concert was GREAT!!! It was awesome!!! If you google setlist.fm and Franz Ferdinand Rio, you’ll find it. In my opinion, the high points were “Ulysses” and “This Fire”. You can listen to it online or in the cds, but nothing compares to the live sound and the crowd’s energy. It was epic, and an one-in-a-lifetime experience. And it was my “sister’s” birthday too. In her words, “best birthday ever!”. We had a blast. And quoting “Ulysses” song, “last night was wild”.

Now all I can do is to look forward to some other concerts. In april Moby is coming to Rio. I am definetly going. And some other artists are expected to perform in Rio this year. Arctic Monkeys, John Mayer, U2 and Madonna. I would really like if Kings of Leon and Muse came too. And next year, Rock in Rio is coming back to Rio the Janeiro. None of that nonsense in Portugal or Spain. It belongs to Rio.

I have two songs I wan’t someone to listen and pay very close attention to the lyrics, but now it’s not that big of a deal. I just don’t care anymore. You know, let it be. All this story has given me much trouble and too much headache for nothing. I don’t care anymore, and I have come to realize that maybe she never really cared. We learn from everything in life, and this was just another thing to learn from. I’m not bitter, I’m not skeptical, I’m ok know. I was just hurting, and if one can’t understand that, then it was not, and it is not worth it.

Heartbreak Warfare, by John Mayer, and Written All Over My Face, by Kris Allen. In this order.

This was late night writing, so I am sorry for any mistakes. I intend to correct them tomorrow. I’ll probably wake up at noon, so don’t expect it to be corrected before that. I wanted to write more, but I’m not in any condition to do so.

The mood for the week is set up on Muse, David Guetta and The Smiths.

R

So, blogs are all about sharing right? Mine, particularly, is about sharing music. But, I live my life through music, so therefore, sharing my life, and music.

Yesterday I was reading the guardian online, and there was an article about an album being the best one released in the whole of 2009. Music lover as I am, I had to check that out, even more so, cos I had never heard about that band. It is The xx, with the album named xx. No, it is not porn. It is excess. In their myspace, you can listen to some music, and watch some videos. In their official website, you can make a free download of one of their songs.

I quite liked their album, but I wouldn’t call that the best of 2009. It’s and indie-lounge-electronic knid of music, which, seems very good, but just not best of 2009.

This title, of best album of 2009, is something very dificult to award. I think of Kings of Leon’s Only by the Night. And then comes Arctic Monkeys’s Humbug. I think it’s a tie. And Marcelo Camelo’s Sou, is also a very good candidate.

I have to put some more thought into it. I don’t know if Muse’s The Resistance was released in 2009, because if it was, it sure is one hell of a nominee.

These days in Rio, a lot of international superstars are around. Among them, Madonna, Beyonce , and, (my favourite) Alicia Keys.

I always liked Alicia Keys. To me, her best song is “If I Ain’t Got You”. But, her latest album sounds really good. You guys should listen. “The Element of Freedom”. There is this song, “Empire State Of Mind Part II” which, a good friend of mine is completely hung up on. He has a good reason for it. The song talks about NYC, and he has already been there, and he loved it. This song must bring him good memories. And to me it inspires memories to be.

It’s late and I am a bit uninspired for writing today.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll come with more inspired stuff.

I sure have a lot to talk about.

R

The music and lights went down around 10pm, but the crowd thought it was just the regular “party blackout”. When things didn’t go back to normal, everybody went to the street, just to see that everywhere around us was dark. These blackouts, are common in Rio, and they can take whole neighborhoods down, so, nobody was frightened, even because in a matter of minutes energy is usually restored. Phones started ringing and word came out. At first, the whole of Brazil, then Paraguay, then reports of sabotage in Itaipu (major hydroelectric power plant in Brazil). For us, cariocas, it didn’t take much time to add 1 plus 1 and make 2. This would take some time, and people would take advantage of it.

What followed was a rising sensation of fear and helplessness. Unlike Sao Paolo, Rio is filled with shantytowns (aka. favelas), in every corner of the city, and it wouldn’t take long for criminals to come down and make some money on us. For one thing, everyone’s cellphone was working, so we assumed that carriers towers would have generators. I was not going home that night, since I live a little farther from the party venue, and in the middle of the night, would be hard to find some public transportation. I was going to sleepover at a friend’s house, in Botafogo. He called his mom, asking how things were there, and if it was safe to go home. But she urged us to stay where we were, given we would cross a tunnel to get there, or some rough parts of downtown. The thing is, that if in broad daylight, criminals in Rio can shut a whole tunnel down, from the entrance to the exit, and steal from everyone, one can only imagine what would happen in complete darkness.

So everyone was on the street, a little scared, but nonetheless ok. But then, word came out that kidnapping, and assaults, in nearby, Maracanã Stadium were happening. Also, we were very close to where a shielded police helicopter was taken down by drug dealers, not two months ago. We immediately started sprinting on the opposite direction, looking for a cab to take us to a colleague’s house nearby. It was not easy, given every cab was occupied. But we managed to go, and wait for power to return. Some of our friends stayed behind, some got a ride from a girl’s father, and others took buses. When near the stadium, inside the cab, we saw two guys, very suspicious looking, running by. Shirtless, and with a piece of wood in hand. I don’t think that was for self-defense.

Traffic, was chaotic. No stop lights, no streetlights, only car lights. People were scared.

In the end, when about 1:30am, lights were restored, we took a cab back to my friend’s house, and managed to sleep. We had class in the next morning. Today, everything seemed to be normal. After class, reading the news, and scrambling the internet for information I’ve learned a few facts.

Urban Trains, and the Subway system, in both Rio and Sao Paolo were halted. Commuters were obliged to leave the trains and walk on tracks to the nearest stations. There were indeed kidnappings in Rio, and some robbery. I don’t know about the death count.

It may seem dramatic, but we know our city, and the constant fear of violence can only increase in this type of situation. Now, remembering last night’s events, I recall a scene from the movie Batman Begins. In the end, when every nut job and psychopath from Arkan Asylum are released into Gotham, and basic services like lightning are cut. We felt like that. Like at any moment, we would be sad victims of the circumstances. None of that happened to me or my friends, but what about those who had more trouble? This just shows that maybe some parts of town are safe (rich South Zone), with extra police cars, and all, but what about the other parts? What about the people who live there? Aren’t they people too? Citizens? Kidnapping and robbery happened at he Maracanã Stadium, the place where the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2014 World Cup, and 2016 Summer Olympics will take place. Well, I just don’t think we are ready for that yet.

Goodnight.