Museum of the Portuguese Language?

There’s one in Sao Paulo, the Brazilian city where I was born and raised. I bet you want to know the museum’s name in Portuguese. It’s “Museu da Língua Portuguesa.”

The museum is located in the heart of Sao Paulo, inside the historical railroad and subway station “Luz.”

Luz Railroad and Subway Station, by cralize under the Wikimedia Commons

As one would expect, the museum is dedicated to showing and sharing the value of the Portuguese language, says the museum’s Web site. But, as opposed to most museums, it uses state-of-the-art technology and interactive resources to present its content.

The museum has, for example, a timeline with interactive resources, where the visitor can learn the history of the language.

It also has a grand gallery, a 106-meter screen that projects films that show the Portuguese language being used in different circumstances. I recently visited the museum and took a picture of a piece of this grand gallery (it’s like a huge flat TV screen that never stops moving):

The museum also has a word alley: a room filled with interactive electronic games where visitors can play with words.

Whenever you go to Sao Paulo, you should definitely plan a visit to the Museum of the Portuguese Language. Even if you don’t speak Portuguese — they do have information in English. It has a variety of learning resources, it’s interactive, and it’s fun.

As opposed to many other museums that I have visited throughout Brazil, this one is special in its use of technology. As a result, I saw many, many young people and couples visiting the museum the last time I went. Two friends and I were three of these people.

During my last visit to the museum

Here are some more photos of the musem that I found on Flickr, and below is a very telling video from YouTube. It’s in Portuguese so you can start practicing!

Blanton Museum’s exhibit “Birth of the Cool”

Birth of the Cool, at the Blantom Museum of Art

On February 22, 2009, the Blanton Museum of Art opened “Birth of Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury.”

“This exhibition incorporates the painting, architecture, furniture design, decorative and graphic arts, film, and music that set in to motion midcentury modernism in the United States and established Los Angeles as a major American cultural center,” says Blanton’s Web site.

“Take your time with this exhibit. Re-visit several times — it’s worth it. There’s much to see and all of it is wonderfully groovy. Leave time to watch the brilliant film and animation shorts, especially the artsy experiments of husband-and-wife creative team Charles and Ray Eames whose singular style of furniture and household objects epitomizes mid-century modernism,” says Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, the arts critic for the Austin American-Statesman, in her blog Seeing Things.

“Birth of the Cool” was organized by California’s Orange County Museum of Art, and is making its final stop at the Blanton after a successful 18-month national tour, says Ryzin in another post.

The exhibit has already received many visitors at the Blanton Museum of Art. (More than 4,000 a week, almost double the museum’s average attendance of the previous few months, says Ryzin, citing museum officials.) The exhibit goes through May 17, and I’m already planning a visit for an upcoming weekend!

For exhibit photos, click here and here.

Also, the Blanton has a series of programs and events related to “Birth of the Cool” planned, including:

Alamo Drafthouse/Austin Film Society
Don’t miss a special Birth of the Cool film series sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse and Austin Film Society. Starting in late March, the Alamo Ritz downtown will screen unique films from this period. Film dates: Wednesdays, April 8, and April 15. Shows begin at 7PM. Tickets are available online or night of screening. For film titles please visit the calendar.

Don’t miss out!

“My job is to write, not to publish,” says García Marquez

By woordenaar under the Creative Commons License

I must confess that I was surprised last week. I was surprised because many news sources reported that Gabriel García Marquez, the Colombian writer (and journalist) who invented the “magic realism,” is unlikely to write again.

According to UK’s Telegraph, Carmen Balcells, the writer’s agent, told a Chilean newspaper last week: “I don’t think that Garcia Marquez will write anything else.”

However, García Marques told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo last Sunday that he doesn’t do anything else “but write.” In fact, a Reuter’s article points out that, when El Tiempo contacted the writer to set up an interview, he responded: “Call me later. I’m busy writing.”  That’s pretty funny.

Reuters also highlighter the fact that, with that answer, the writer treated El Tiempo “[w]ith the typical grumpiness which he has been known to treat reporters in recent years.”

The economy… again! Artists use economic woes as outlet for creativity

The Baltimore Sun published an interesting article about how artists use the though economic times as an outlet for their creativity.

“Web designer Andres Zapata came across a zip-lock bag filled with pieces of credit cards he’d chopped up after consolidating his debt last year. Instead of throwing out the clippings, Zapata arranged them in the shape of a spindly hand grasping a credit card and snapped a photo of it. Called Plastic, the villainous-looking piece will be published in a book of recession-themed art later this year,” writes Sam Sessa for the Baltimore Sun.

Zapata joins millions of hundred of artists and musicians, who are using the economic meltdown as inspiration, Sessa writes.

Another example: “Nashville-based country music singer John Rich rails against ‘big shots whining on my evening news’ in his heart-wrenching song Shuttin’ Detroit Down.”

Throughout history, artists have used “economic and social upheaval as a muse,” and I have a good example for that. Last year, I wrote a story on Vijai Patchineelam, a Brazil-based artist who came to Austin on an artist-in-residency program.

In Vijai’s case, he and his friends didn’t have any money or support during college, and they invented their art together: “‘The situation was really bad. The studio building itself was falling apart, the ceiling was falling off, and sometimes we didn’t even have water available,’ he said. ‘I was a student and didn’t have money to buy the material I needed.’ So the group was forced to innovate and work with what it had.” Read more here.

These are very inspiring stories.

What’s the best pizza restaurant in the U.S.?

Any guesses?

Well, I was watching a Food Network show the other day and it said it’s Pizzeria Bianco, located in Phoenix, Arizona.

So next time you go there make sure you stop by. And have lots of time and patience because the place gets crowded!

Here is what an online review says about Pizzeria Bianco: “You must take in the whole experience in order for this place to shine. There is a reason the wait is up to three hours. Every time I have been I have waited for three hours and loved every minute of it. Make Bianco’s the focus of the evening. The staff is very friendly and accommodating.”

Wow! 3 hours wait?

It’s okay. They have a wine bar right next door, where you can enjoy some wine and “kill” time while your table doesn’t become available.

The review continues: “Chris Bianco [chef and owner] personally makes every pizza that comes out of the kitchen, that’s him behind the counter. He’s there every night and says good night to every guest.”

Food Network said that what makes this pizza different from the others is its artisan, wood-fired pizza. It’s the REAL Italian pizza, which I thought did not exist in the U.S.!

Check out Pizzeria Bianco’s online menu, and your mouth will start watering. Their pizza selection is limited (6 kinds only, although there are extras that you can mix and match), but they all sound delicious.

This is the kind of pizza we have in Brazil, and I miss it so much! (Pizza Hut and Domino’s are the exception over there.) Hummm… there is nothing like a crunchy, fresh, wood-fired pizza. I need to find one of these in Austin! Any suggestion?

Capoeira: representative of the Brazilian culture

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form that makes a ritual of movements from martial arts, games, and dance, says the Wikipedia. “Participants form a roda, or circle, and take turns either playing musical instruments (such as the Berimbau), singing, or ritually sparring in pairs in the center of the circle.”

Because it was brought to Brazil by African slaves sometime after the 16th. century, capoeira plays an important role in the Brazilian culture. The slaves “used it as a way to practice their martial arts moves while making it appear to be a game or dance. Since the slave-masters forbade any kind of martial art, it was cloaked in the guise of an innocent-looking recreational dance,” adds Wikipedia.

The picture above shows a couple of friends of mine playing capoeira at Gregory Plaza last fall. I personally have never played it, but I do enjoy watching the “rodas,” like the ones in the video below.

And here’s an interesting blog that has all about the Afro-Brazilian martial art, including tutorials and the principles of a capoeirista.

Art museums hope technology will sustain interest

On my last post, I talked about how important it is for museums to use technology in order to connect with younger generations.

I just read another AP article that gives a few more examples of how museums are modernizing and adapting to the digital era.

* Milwaukee Art Museum visitors can hear about American furniture from the 18th and 19th century, and music from those periods in the new iPod Touch tour.

* At The Baltimore Museum of Art, people can stand at a touch-sensitive flat screen for a virtual tour of the apartment and artwork of sisters Claribel and Etta Cone, who assembled a grand collection of pieces from Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh.

* At the Brooklyn Museum, two laptops with Web cams record videos of people talking about race in relation to the exhibition “The Black List Project” to be broadcast on YouTube.

“Art museums nationwide are trying to connect in different ways to a population spending more time on Wiis and getting information from the touch of a button on smart phones,” writes Carrie Antlfinger for the AP.

And a museum executive may seem to have understood what was missing: “Technology becomes a critical educational tool. Technology becomes a social connecting link for people who are like minded,” said Milwaukee Art Museum Director Dan Keegan.

Well said. Well done. I want to see more of that.

Below is a video about “Innovative User Interfaces in Museums.” (YouTube says the video was made at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, in Norway.)

Museums across America and the tough economic times

Ula Ilnytzky, who writes for the Associated Press, talks about how the economic downturn has affected museums throughout the U.S.: “the recession is hitting museums hard from coast to coast, forcing directors to boost admission fees, cut budgets and staff, and put ambitious projects on hold,” the writer says.

“The recession has hit so hard that two museums have even done the unthinkable: In New York City, the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, facing a $2.5 million debt, sold two artworks from its collection to cover operating costs. And in Boston, Brandeis University has proposed selling pieces of its collection, if needed, to boost the school’s falling endowment,” says Ilnytzky. Other museums announced layoffs and store closures: the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for instance, announced it will cut 250 positions by summer and close 15 museum stores across the country.

But, for our surprise, museum admissions have gone up, Ilnytzky adds.

Ilnytzky quotes Michael Conforti, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors, who says that “[i]t’s not the worst of times for museums, curiously enough.”

For now, says Ilnytzky, budget cuts averaging anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent are not significantly affecting exhibitions and programs.

One factor that may have made admissions go up is the high cost of baby-sitting during these challenging economic times, says the article. ” Parents happily bring their children to the museum and keep them up late,” said Arnold Lehma, director for the Brooklyn Museum.

Now, here’s the good and interesting news:

“To increase their visibility and engage audiences, museums are increasingly using creative marketing techniques that include social networking and blogging sites on the Internet. The Brooklyn, long known for its innovative and sometimes controversial exhibitions, recently introduced a new membership tier aimed at 20- and 30-year-olds, and upgraded its wireless connections so visitors could listen to audio tours on their cell phones.”

I’m glad at least a few museums have been able to catch up with the digital era. It’s time for the younger generations to enjoy visiting museums again, and this is a great way to call their attention and motivate them to go and purchase tickets!

Are you a movie “aficionado”?

Even if you are not, but you’re interested in other cultures and movies that are NOT the Hollywood type, check this out:

“Cine Las Americas is a multicultural, non-profit Media Arts Center,” whose mission is to “promote cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging the diverse Central Texas community through film and media arts.”

Cine las Americas is based in Austin, and this year will host the 12th. Cine Las Americas International Film Festival from April 22 through April 30.

Here’s the promotional video for last year’s Cine Las Americas Festival:

The featured guest country for the 2009 festival is Chile: “[t]he goal of this year’s program is to create a space for the screening of films that represent the best and most successful of contemporary Chilean cinema, focusing on films produced in the post-dictatorship period from 1994 to 2004.”

However, Cine Las Americas says the program will also feature films by young directors and established filmmakers from the South American country.

The 2009 festival program hasn’t been released yet, but you can have an idea of the diverse, multicultural films, documentaries and narratives that it offers by checking out the 2008 program.

By the way, I just got an e-mail saying that Cine Las Americas is still looking for volunteers for box office and production assistant operations. Interested? E-mail: volunteers( @ )cinelasamericas.org. Volunteers may be compensated with individual tickets and festival passes, so this may be a good opportunity for you to get in!

Have you ever heard of Austin’s unique cake balls?

“One of the weirdest cities in the U.S. is now home to a unique dessert concept,” says Holy Cacao’s Web site.

Holy Cacao's Red Velvet Cake Ball by Holy Cacao under the Creative Commons License.

Holy Cacao is a dessert trailer located on 1207 S. 1st Street (just south of the intersection of Barton Springs and South 1st St.) It makes and sells a unique ball-shaped cake, also known as cake ball.

Austin 360’s Forklore blog describes the cake as “a globe of batter and frosting mounted on a stick Popsicle-style and dipped in chocolate, with varieties like dark chocolate (‘Holly’s Favorite’), red velvet, wedding cake (with white chocolate), Grasshopper (with chocolate mint) and the inevitably entendre-ful ‘Brass’ (peanut butter and chocolate).”

Yeah, I think this new “cake concept” is definitely contributing to keep Austin weird.

Desert doesn’t get any better than this, right? WRONG.

The delicious-looking ball cakes are only $1.50!

But Holy Cacao sells more than cakes. It also has the hot Drinking Chocolate and the Cake Shake, “offering the perfect dessert combo of cake and ice cream in a delicious milkshake,” says the trailer’s Web site.

I’m mouth-watering now. You should be, too. The weekend is here… why not indulge yourself?

You can also check out Holy Cacao’s photos on Flickr and its Twitter page.