fernandosouza.org

Syren, With a ‘Y’

Nando — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:45:37 +0000

Luiz Syren has been rocking the underground Metal scene of Rio for a little more than 15 years. Jeez, I hate to mention numbers like that, makes me realize I’m getting old!

I met Luiz sometime in this 15 years period and he’s been a good friend since then. And no, before you even bother asking me that, he’s not paying me a quid to write this article. On the contrary, I begged him quite a few times to send me some material for this article.

Syren, with a ‘Y’, is his nickname. And no, it’s not a mere coincidence. Luiz can sound like the real Air Raid Siren when he wants to. And because of that he fronted the best Iron Maiden cover band in Rio de Janeiro.

I remember they played a gig at EMI’s party just before Rock in Rio 3. Janick Gers and Dave Murray were there to see Luiz singing. Sorry for the bad joke, they were probably there because of contractual reasons and good beer.

I could keep writing about Luiz’ past bands (you must check ‘Atlantida’, though) or keep writing about the funny stories I’ve had with him, but that’s not the purpose of this article. This article is all about Syren, just Syren, Syren with a ‘Y’.

How many new Metal bands are emerging right now? Probably thousands, good and bad… but one thing is certain: in this vast musical universe it is not easy to be noticed if you do not have the formula, the differential, that ‘something else’ always connected to a simple but rare thing: TALENT, and that’s exactly what Syren has to show.

These Metal bastards were born to spread their musical essence by mixing the new and old Metal school, giving voice to a single work that surely will sound unique to the ears of all generations of fans.

Led by their singer Luiz Syren, the line up follows with D Arawnn (guitar), B Arawnn (guitar) Bruno Coe (bass) and M Kult (drums, Coldblood).

Syren’s music explores melody and aggression, focusing on the powerful vocal range of Luiz, who explores various vocal dynamics, guitars full of punch and heavy riffs, mixed with excellent drumming, rich on double bass, by M Kult (Coldblood) and powerful bass lines.

A few years ago, my friend Roy Z (Tribe Of Gypsies, Bruce Dickinson, Halford) was here in Rio, and one day we were sitting on one of those kiosks by the beach at around 2.00am talking about music and Roy turned to Luiz and said: “Luiz, your new project sounds fantastic!” This project that Roy was talking about is what you today will know as Syren and the album title is simply HEAVY METAL.

If Roy Z’s endorsement is not enough, Luiz has got some more. Ark, most famous for being the former band of Jorn Lande, sent an email to Luiz saying: “Great music. I loved the vocals, great atmosphere à la Bruce Dickinson! The guitars are also great and worked amazingly. It’s great to hear a new band able to keep as much quality in their songs.

“Stay strong in Metal and spread your music. Hugs from Norway.”

Johnny Forslund, promoter for Sweden Metal Music Entertainment, said: “I will listen to the songs again, but from now I can say that Syren will be very soon, the band of the moment…”

The year of 2011 brought a range of new opportunities for Syren starting with the 20 show South American tour that will soon hit Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. It is also the very first time that this new killer line up will play live together. And they have come to conquer every corner of the globe.

After the release of ‘HEAVY METAL’ in 2011, the band will enter the studio to record an EP. There is no rest for these energetic Metalheads.

There is no turning back. The ‘Brazilian Metal Bastards’ have came to rock!

Coldblood: When Heavy Is Not Enough!

Nando — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:02:19 +0000

Formed in January 1992 by Allan Silva, Vitor Esteves and M Kult, Coldblood appeared in the underground scene of Rio de Janeiro with the second generation of Death Metal bands with the intention of playing a sound influenced by the great names of the style such as Possessed, Venom, Sodom and Bolt Thrower.

In the same year, the band released their first demo tape called ‘Terror Stench’, which had an excellent reception from the public and the specialized media and the band began touring to promote their work in the Brazilian scene.

Due to instabilities in their line up, the band’s second demo, ‘…And It Comes The Winter’, was launched in 2000 with Gustavo Sazes on the guitar. The main characteristic of this demo is its faster and more brutal sound as compared to their first. And in 2004, the original line-up was back together to release the excellent EP ‘New Black God’.

As a result of their efforts, the band finally signed, in 2005, a record deal with Mexican Onslaught Rec to release their first album, the ten track ‘Under The Blade I Die’ which was majorly influenced by Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death and Massacre, among others.

We can also notice a certain influence of bands such as Destruction and Slayer in some parts, but the good old Death Metal is predominant in this album. Because of contractual reasons, this album was only released in Brazil in 2007 through a partnership formed by Freemind and Distro Rock Prod. Rec. The work was highly regarded by critics who identified, as previously mentioned here, the same influences from the 80s that the band had carried through the decade before.

In 2008, Coldblood went, once again, through a makeover in their line-up. Artur Cirio (Vulgar) replaced Allan Silva as the frontman and Julio Latorraca joined on guitars. The group, then traditionally formed as a trio, became a quartet, which gave the sound an even more latent aggression and depth.

The band then performed concerts to promote their album throughout the country joining great names of the Death Metal world – Cannibal Corpse (USA), Master (Czech Republic) and Onslaught (England) – and prepared themselves to go on their first international tour, the South American tour called ‘Under The South American Tour I Die’, playing in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

However, the band then faced big difficulties. Vitor Esteves decided to leave right before the tour and in a demonstration of great professionalism and will, rookie Julio Latorraca joined the band so that they could honor their commitments and make their name known beyond Brazilian borders.

After touring, bassist Alexandre Kaffer, an experienced musician in the national underground scene with stints in bands like Darkest Hate, Mysteriis and Warfront, joined Coldblood as bass player.

Today, with a finally consolidated line up, the band is in the final production stage of their EP ‘The Other Gods’ which contains five new songs and the first three demos as bonus tracks. They are also writing their new album, which is due in 2012 and will herald in a new phase for the band with the same influences that inspired them in 92. The band are aiming to write their name in the history of the underground, building a solid and successful career.

The new EP ‘The Other Gods’ will also have the following video as a bonus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIROyudNrxk

Roadie For a Day

Nando — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:58:17 +0000

What was supposed to be a nice simple day: meeting a good friend from São Paulo, having lunch together and watching a gig at night (for free), turned out to be an amazing day to break the same old boring routine.

Since my friend Juliana Negri was working for the production of the Queensryche shows in Brazil, she invited me to hang out with her backstage. I was not a Queensryche fan back then (shame on me, I know!) but I didn’t think twice and said “Sure! Why not?”

I was most curious about Geoff Tate. Everybody had told me before what a hell of a singer he was (still is, btw) – “Top three in the Metal scene”, people said.

First thing on my mind was: “How am I going to get into the venue backstage? Shall I just say: I’m with the band! – How many people do that to get in? How will the venue staff know I’m serious and not just some random fan trying to sneak in?”

To my surprise, lack of security was what I found! It took me a few minutes to figure out where the back entrance was but once I found it, there was no single soul to stop me from getting in. I had never been in a backstage before apart from the Tribuzy show in São Paulo, the one when the DVD was recorded. But that was a post gig kind of thing and this one was a bit different.

Anyway, the backstage seems like an office. There are a few rooms with desks, computers, toilets and down the corridor on the right you have the stage. My friend introduced me to her work mates in one of the rooms and then showed me the rest. One of the rooms was for the tour manager and the other one for the band crew. There was also (of course) a dressing room and a room full of food, drinks and all the cool stuff! No wonder why this was the room where I spent most of that afternoon.

Another great moment that I remember from that afternoon was when I went to the stage. I saw the guitar tech doing what he was supposed to do while making out with a groupie and I sat and played tried to play on Scott Rockenfield’s drums! That was cool! It was also the first time I saw the audience from another angle. Ok, there was nobody there at the time, the venue was completely empty, but I could very well imagine what is to be on a stage.

Once I was back in the backstage I realized some of the band members had arrived. One of them was talking with his wife on the phone and checking how things were back at home, the other one was browsing the net and was pretty pissed off that his hockey team had lost the night before. After that he went to the stage for a quick sound check and I followed him.

He wanted to see what kind of speakers the venue had. He was telling me that depending on the speakers there’s some kind of adjustments that need to be done to his preset. Dummie me! To me, speakers were simply speakers! I didn’t know they change from place to place.

Have you ever heard stories about rock stars demanding impossible things from the production? I wouldn’t say the guys from Queensryche act like ‘rock stars’. They act like ordinary people, like you and me. But something like that happened. Geoff Tate asked for a special coffee blend from Starbucks. Guess what? We didn’t have Starbucks in Rio back then. The thing is, he didn’t care! He wanted his bloody coffee! So, one girl had to fly all the way to São Paulo to get the coffee for him.

The thing is, I don’t even know if he drank it at all. I remember that I put a teapot and bags of Darjeeling tea especially for him next to the drums and that was what he drank all night long.

After a few chats here and there with the band crew, band members and fans that were already waiting outside, my friend came to me and said: “The production has just realized they’re short on staff! So, we need your help. There’s no money involved here and if you are willing to help, you will do so because of the fun and that’s it”.

I didn’t think twice and replied: “What do I have to do?” She added: “Pretty much work as a translator. The venue staff needs to communicate with the band staff and things like that. You’ll be there to help.” Sounded fun at the time and still sounds fun. I’d do it again if asked to.

During the gig I found myself talking to the spotlight guys through radio, translating whatever the band’s light engineer said to me. That was a huge responsibility! Imagine if one of them missed Geoff Tate at an important moment of the show for example?

One funny moment that night was when the dry ice smoke machine wouldn’t stop working and the band’s engineer telling me to go there on the bloody stage and shut it myself! Well, I went there but I couldn’t do it! I simply didn’t know how to do it.

Oh man, I remember his face! He was pretty pissed with me! He ended up going there himself, but before he went he showed me how to work on the light board so that I could work with it while he fixed the situation. It was cool to work with the lights. I remember changing it from lavender to yellow and yellow to lavender during a whole song!

Another thing that was fun about that night was when friends bumped into me in the venue and saw me working on the light board or coming and going from the backstage into the venue with an all access pass and they couldn’t figure out what was happening. I simply couldn’t stop in order to explain to them what the hell was happening.

As for the gig itself, it was amazing! Very technical, great musicians and a hell of a singer! The venue was far from being sold out and I could see in the eyes of the fans that were there that they were having the moment of their lives.

As for me, well, that was the moment when I first realized how the business is, what happens behind a big production, what it takes to give the fans the best moment of their lives. Apart from the coffee story, I could see that rock stars are normal people like you and me, who worry about home, make silly voices on the mobile to make their kids laugh, get mad when their team loses, wear glasses to read tiny letters and stuff like that.

Have I become a Queensryche fan after that? I have to admit that I haven’t. However, I’ve listened to all of their albums and watched videos on YouTube. I would recognize their music if I listened to it on the radio. They are good. They are great, actually! But I don’t know, I guess I’m just a strange guy…

Ooops… Maiden Did It Again!

Nando — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:52:00 +0000

Sunday, March 27th, the day I and another 12,999 people had been waiting for had finally arrived. I’d been anxiously waiting for this day for the past month or so, watching all videos from the current tour on YouTube, sharing them on Facebook as well as bombing my friend’s wall with them.

Anyway, the gig was scheduled for 8.30pm and the venue was supposed to open at 6.30pm. There would also be a supporting act, Shadowside – a Brazilian metal band that doesn’t say much to me, besides the hot chick on the lead vocals.

My friends and I arrived at the arena at around 6.20pm and all we could see was a crowd going back for what seemed like miles. You could feel and hear the energy and excitement of the fans while singing their football chant “Ole, Ole Ole Ole – Mai-den! Mai-den!!”

At 6.50pm the queue had not moved a single inch and that was the first signal that something was not right. I started to think: “Damn, the gig is being delayed”, “I wonder if they’re doing the sound check right now”, “What the hell is happening in there?” “If they take more time, the support band won’t have time to play”, “Is there going to be a support band anyway?”

I can’t remember the exact time I finally arrived at my seat, the only thing that I remember is that it didn’t take too long for the supporting band to enter the stage. Their set did not take too long – twenty minutes or so. After it had finished the only thing my mates and I could say about it was: “Yeah, she’s indeed very hot!”

Not too long after that could we finally hear the first chords of UFO’s ‘Doctor, Doctor’. My friends and I looked at each other and said: “It’s bloody time!”

Our excitement did not last too long, though. After a long intro, Maiden came into stage as energetic as ever, playing the title song of their latest album ‘The Final Frontier’. At around 1:30 minutes into the song, my friend pointed to something happening in front of the stage and said: “they’re invading!” and I quickly replied: “Don’t be a fool! That’s the guy from IMTV simply going backstage”.

I just realized I was completely wrong when Bruce stopped singing and decided to only observe the situation while the band kept playing. As soon as the band finished the first song, Bruce started to explain what had happened;

“The barrier has collapsed”, he said. And then, he added that the barrier is very important for our own safety and because of that the band would leave the stage for ten minutes so that it could be fixed and then they would then re-start the show. The people seemed to understand and they even started to scream for him.

It was probably the ten longest minutes of our lives and after that a lady from the arena management appeared on stage. Oh man, that woman had balls! She started to say something but everybody was booing her so loudly that nobody could hear her speaking. It was only when Rod Smallwood appeared on stage and asked everybody to shut the #$%@ up (he used polite words, of course), that the people actually shut up and started listening to her. Apparently, more minutes would be needed in order to fix the barrier.

I’m a Maiden fan for quite some time and I know that when Rod has to show his face, it’s because there’s something seriously bad going on. I said to my friends: “They’ll cancel this shit!” They didn’t say anything back, only nodded their head in agreement.

We couldn’t believe what was happening. The crowd was clearly getting more and more impatient as the minutes passed. After thirty minutes or so, we could see Bruce coming into the stage all by himself. Oh no, the woman with the huge balls was right behind him. “Yeah, they’re definitely going to cancel this.” – I thought to myself.

Bruce started to say how hard the venue’s staff had tried to fix the problem, but unfortunately the barrier was completely broken, then he added how important our safety was. At this point the people were still supportive and clapping their hands after every sentence he said. But when he said “Unfortunately, tonight we can’t play, but tomorrow…”, I think those were probably the worst boos he’d ever received in his life as a professional musician.

He talked a bit more, even trying a little Portuguese “por favor (Portuguese for ‘please’) listen…” He once again explained how worried the band was about our safety and the police had warned them that it was not safe to carry on with the gig.

“Tomorrow we’re going to build the best fucking barrier the world has ever seen,” Bruce said. He also begged us not to damage the arena on our way out, because if we did this, then the gig wouldn’t happen at all. All we could hear was boos and curses, and all we could see were cups of beers flying from one side to the other.

That was sure a disappointment, but I’d say that 99% of the people there understood the situation. Of course, when we talk about masses, there’s always a number of people who are there to try to ruin everything.

I saw people punching the walls, kicking fire extinguishers (What? Yeah! People are dumb enough to kick fire extinguishers!), nothing that made much sense anyway. I did see an interesting way of protesting: a guy cut the rope holding the huge floating balloon of the beer company who sponsors the venue and took it home!

I didn’t see any very serious things happening at all, not when I was leaving the place and not even when the barrier collapsed. However, the next day, browsing local news websites, I could see that there was indeed some damage done to the venue and most seriously, one of the flying cups of beers did hit the soundboard, fully damaging it.

“Damn, the postponed gig could easily become a cancelled gig”, I thought.

I spent the whole Monday checking Maiden’s official website every single hour as well as the arena’s website for what, in my mind, was inevitable: the gig cancellation.

At 4.00pm I hadn’t yet read anything confirming my darkest thoughts and I was finally convinced the gig was indeed going to happen. We left home one hour before we did the previous day. It was Monday, a working day, and all we wanted to do was to avoid the rush hour.

Felt weird arriving there and seeing no huge queue outside the venue. What happened was, the venue management developed some brains and let the people get in in advance. There was no hot chick leading the support band this time. It was a 100% Maiden only evening.

‘Doctor, Doctor’ hits the speaker and we all know it’s just a matter of minutes for full excitement. ‘Satellite 15… The Final Frontier’ opens the show with a few futuristic projection on the screen. On stage, the scenario is a spaceship with a starry sky.

The reception was very warm. Proving that ‘The Final Frontier’ has not reached first place in sales in 28 countries by chance, the audience sang along with Bruce. The excitement did not diminished with the next song, ‘El Dorado’, which has a powerful bass intro played by Steve Harris. It was with this song that Maiden won their first Grammy this year for best Metal performance.

Overall, the new songs were well received. ‘Coming Home’ was also sung by many, as for ‘When The Wild Wind Blows’, although very nice, it’s too long and some people decided that it was beer time.

But of course you cannot argue with history. The Arena started to boil when the first chords of ‘Two Minutes To Midnight’ were played. At that moment, Bruce had the audience in his hand and led the show with its known expertise and many “Scream for me Rio de Janeiro”‘s, his famous catchy phrase.

I believe it was after this song that he first talked to the crowd:

“I can see we have a brand new shiny, nice, beautiful and very expenisve barrier and you didn’t have to pay for it. Even better, we didn’t have to pay for it. Some motherfucker paid for it!”

It was laughs all around. That’s it, all the tension from the previous night was gone. Everybody was in ecstasy.

Maiden brought news, but they also do not give up on those moments that every fan expects: Bruce waving the British flag waving while singing ‘The Trooper’ or the chance to sing together all the lyrics of ‘Fear Of The Dark’.

During ‘The Evil That Men Do’, Maiden had a fourth guitarist. As usual, Eddie came on stage. To the delight of those present, the three feet tall puppet picked up a guitar and pretended to be playing with the band.

But what impressed the audience was the giant Eddie which appeared behind the stage during ‘Iron Maiden’. This alien version of Eddie is killer! Probably the best ever Eddie so far!

We were lucky! After the show, I read somehwere the São Paulo and Rio were the only places to see Eddie before the DVD recording in Chile. Apparently, Eddie was ready to go before expected so the band decided to use it in a couple of gigs in Brazil as a sort of test drive.

‘The Number Of The Beast’, ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ and ‘Running Free’ ended a perfect night. People were still expecting a bonus as a sorry for the cancelled gig and started to scream: “Run To The Hills! Run To The Hills! Run To The Hills!”. However, it was all in vain.

When “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” by Mony Python (btw, what a perfect song to end a perfect night!) started to play on the speakers, we all came out of a trance and went back home with a smile on our faces and wondering when it would be the next time we would see these dudes again.

Oooops!

Nando — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:59:52 +0000

This site is being under major overhaul. However, the blog won’t disappear. Please, come back soon!

About

Nando — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:34:13 +0000

Hi, I’m Nando and my nickname comes from my name, Fernando Souza. I’m from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and I was born in 78. I’m an undergraduate English (with a desire to have a master or doctor degree) student and I work as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in several schools, multinational companies such as Shell for example, and I also do private tutoring. At the moment I’m working on a distance learning project based on moodle. I’m simply the guy responsible to make it happen! And it slowly is!

I also do some web designs a free lancer. I’m not a proper designer but I do understand quite a bit about it and I’m very satisfied with all the designs I’ve done so far, and so are my clients.

What else? Well, I have a big passion for cinema (see the list of films I’ve seen on the menu), some tv series and rock music in general. I’m also a frustrated bass player and I’ve been in quite a few bands, with no success at all. But I haven’t given up yet!

A Bittersweet Life is my personal website, a place where I keep my own blog, in which I write about music, cinema, television and mainly about useless facts about my ~~pathetic~~ life. Nothing very interesting, really!

Alive and Rocking

Nando — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:53:01 +0000

Who said working and studying at the same time was easy? I’m not complaining, I’m only trying to apologize for not writing more often.

Work is great! I’ve been much more involved with things and I think I’m doing fine. I’ve also acquired a new function: translator. I’ve translated quite a few documents for multinational companies and in the beginning of September, I worked doing simultaneous translation (language interpretation) in a Coca-Cola event. It was an event involving the South African, Brazilian, Ukrainian and Polish Coca-Cola teams, in which the South African Coca-Cola team shared with the others their experience in hosting the FIFA World Cup 2010. It was a very challenging job for me, but (I guess) in the end everything went fine.

College is good too, the first round of exams went great. However, I haven’t managed to make any real friend yet, but I guess I’m much more blended if compared to the last term. So, I believe I’m on the right path.

As for the personal life, nothing has changed. I still go rocking with friends on the weekends and that’s pretty fine for me. I did miss the Rio Film Festival though, which is a shame. And for tonight, hell yeah! I’m seeing Rush live. You know, that Canadian band with 3 old guys playing rock on a huge stage full of special effects in front of thousands of people? Well, that’s them! Seeing Rush live is one of those things everybody should have on their “things to do before I die” list. I do have it on mine and I’m crossing it out after tonight.

The Importance of Reading

Nando — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:27:02 +0000

I’ve written this post to put in my Company’s blog. I liked it very much so I’m now posting it here so you can also read it.

The purpose of this post is to emphasize how important reading is as far as learning English is concerned.

Good readers can understand the individual sentences and the organizational structure of a piece of writing. They can comprehend ideas, follow arguments, and detect implications. They know most of the words in the text already, but they can also determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the context – failing this, they can use their dictionary effectively to do so. In summary, good readers can extract from the writing what is important for the particular task they are employed in. And they can do it quickly!
Educational researchers have also found a strong correlation between reading and vocabulary knowledge. In other words, students who have a large vocabulary are usually good readers. This is not very surprising, since the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read extensively, and if you read extensively you are likely to be or become a good reader!

It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was a primary leisure activity. People would spend hours reading books and travel to lands far away-in their minds. The only tragedy is that, with time, people have lost their skill and passion to read. There are many other exciting and thrilling options available, aside from books. And that is a shame because reading offers a productive approach to improving vocabulary and word power. It is advisable to indulge in at least half an hour of reading a day to keep abreast of the various styles of writing and new vocabulary.

Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes. Reading is an activity that involves

greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader. It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations. The habit can become a healthy addiction and adds to the information available on various topics. It helps us to stay in-touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days of yore and makes us sensitive to global issues.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s Read!

Article based on “the importance of reading for academic success” by Paul Shoebotton and “the importance of reading” by Damian Sofsian.

Amazon’s Wish List

Nando — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:02:43 +0000

Have you ever used Amazon’s Wish List to gift someone or be gifted? Well, I haven’t. Nor I know someone who has. I don’t know how common it is abroad, but here in Brazil I’m not sure how popular it is. Probably not popular at all.

I’ve just created my wish list just for the sake of it. Why not? I was really having fun while I was building it. Anyway, I need books in order to succeed in college and to be a good professional in my field of work. So, if you want to help me with that, I’ll really appreciate it. If not, I won’t be mad at you. Don’t even worry! hehe

The wish list is here: http://amzn.com/w/598QS9EA0TF1

It’s isn’t that big, is it? Most of the books in it will be bought really soon and many more books will be added to it in the forthcoming months. A nice personal library is on its way!

Second Term

Nando — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:33:03 +0000

I guess I forgot to write something about the end of the last term at University. I remember writing about the results of my first round of exams, but never wrote anything about the second and last round. Shame on me, I know.

Anyway, the results of the second round were ok. My performance dropped a little bit if you compare to the grades I had on the first round. This is probably due to my very own lack of study. I felt really comfortable with my first results that I kind of underestimated the rest of the term. Subjects accumulated, time to study was tightened due to lots of work and therefore my final grades were not as good as I expected them to be.

Am I disappointed? Not really! That was a lesson learned.

Now, week 2 of the second term will start. So far, so good. The subjects I’m currently studying are:

English II (verbs and narratives)

Literary and Historical Fundaments of Anglo-American Culture & Civilization (that’s the one that seems to be the most interesting in my opinion)

Fundaments of Portuguese Literature

Pedagogical Practice I

Portuguese II (Portuguese Syntax)

I’ll keep you guys informed about how things will develop for me during this term. Hopefully, everything will be fine.

My favourite song of the moment

Nando — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:08:18 +0000

Differently from most people I do not have an all time favourite song nor film. I would even find it extremely difficult to create a top 5 all time favourite song or film list, like High Fidelity’s Rob can. But then, he does not actually exist, does he?

For the past 10 days or so I’ve had 4 or 5 favourite songs of the moment. First was ‘Coming Home’, then ‘Isle of Avalon’, followed by ‘The Talisman’ and ‘When the Wild Wind Blows’. I’m not really sure if ‘The Man Who would Be King’ has ever reached the top of the list. But it can easily get there. It’s just a matter of, hmm, a matter of… Well, I really don’t know. It just happens, if you know what I mean.

Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier

This is due, of course, to the new Iron Maiden album ‘The Final Frontier’, which was released last monday. The album has 10 songs and half of it were on my ‘temporarily’, or as I prefer to call, favourite song of the moment list. This shows you how great the album actually is despite of all the changes in the band’s style. It’s more progressive, it’s more beautifully written (songwise and musicwise), not as strong as before but full of nice feelings and although it’s a long album, you don’t get tired of listening to it.

It’s the best Maiden album since ‘Brave New World’ and I even there to say, maybe the best since ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ and it’s definitely worth a listen. Totally recommended.

Paul, the octopus, and I

Nando — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:29:22 +0000

Paul, the octopus.

I’m not Paul, the octopus, but until yesterday I had guessed all the results of the FIFA’s South Africa World Cup 2010 (I’m not considering the group stage, of course!). I don’t have reasons to lie. You, who talk to me on a daily basis, can prove this.

Yesterday I bet on Uruguay’s willingness, braveness, strength and high morale against Germany’s technique. I was wrong and Paul was right. It was a tough, exciting and beautiful match. I’m glad I sat in front of the TV for almost 2 hours. Today I’m also betting against Paul. In my humble opinion, The Netherlands is going to win the match and something tells me it’s going to be an ugly and nervous game. Spain has better players, they play more beautifully and have more skills, but I don’t know, The Netherlands simply seem to be a better team. Am I going to tie my personal challenge against Paul? I hope so.

I never believed in the Brazilian team. Everything was wrong with them, starting with our coach, Dunga, who had never been a coach before and was clearly an invention of nobody knows who. Well, I should say starting with CBF’s chairman, but then, this would deserve an exclusive post about it. We even didn’t have the best players in that team, who were left out without much explanation.

Another team that impressed me (in a good way), but I also did not believe was Argentina. They had a great attack, great players, but no defense at all. And, of course, Maradona had never been a coach before, it was another invention of stupid people, just like Dunga was. It’s not because you were one of the best players in history that you’ll be a great coach too. It doesn’t work that way.

Brazil World Cup 2014

Oh, and the logo for Brazil’s 2014 World Cup? Who else thinks it’s extremely ugly?

A bit of everything

Nando — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:47:33 +0000

I know I haven’t been around for quite a long time. There are a few reasons for that. Firstly, because I wanted the Dio post to stick on top as a humble way of showing my admiration for his music. Secondly, because I haven’t had much time. Who said working and studying at the same time was easy? Thirdly, because I’ve been quite active on facebook and twitter. And if you are wodering, no. I won’t be replacing this blog for them. And last but not least, my life is pretty boring! Nothing exciting happens, therefore I don’t have much to write about.

***

My second round of exams at University started last Thursday. The first exam was ok, I guess. I believe I won’t have problems to pass that discipline. The exam that worries me the most is tomorrow’s. And guess which discipline it is? Portuguese! Go figure, hehe. As for the others, I don’t believe I’ll have many problems either. What is interesting to mention here is that I haven’t study anything at all for those exams. I guess I pay really attention tho the classes. That’s the only reasonable explanation that I can think of.

***

We’re about to enter the third week of the World Cup and I haven’t written a single line about it before. shame on me! Well, it’s been a boring Cup. The good teams are failing (see England, France, Spain, Italy, Holland and Germany) to play good football. Well, let’s put Brazil in this list too. This Brazilian team sucks big time. And the thing is, even playing horribly, Brazil still has big chances of winning this cup. And then, that would be terrible for the good of football.

The best team I’ve seen so far is Argentina, but I don’t know… Something tells me they’ll leave in the next rounds. They have an awesome attack, but their defense is the opposite. They’re not a well balanced team. In that category, I shall say Brazil has some advantages, in spite of the poor football. I promise to post more about the world cup as the games get more exciting, ok?

***

I think I’m in a band again. Last week we had our first rehearsal. The second would happen today, but the drummer had problems and wouldn’t be able to come. So we put it off for next week. The singer is a friend of mine, Renata and we’ve played together before. The drummer and the guitar player are Renata’s friends. They seem to be nice people. We still need another guitar player or a keyboard player, with preference for the latter.

We’re starting with 5 covers in order to get to know each other, to let things blend in and see with have chemistry, this kind of things.

***

I’m quite interested in this girl. But I’m afraid she doesn’t even know I exist. Why is it like this all the time? That’s frustrating!

There’s a lot of flirtation (mostly from her side) with this other girl on msn messenger. I do believe she’s interested in me, but the opposite doesn’t happen. I’ll keep playing the game, let’s see where this leads.

Two weeks ago a friend of mine said: “I have this friend that I’ll present to you. I think you have things in common with her”. This meeting hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know when it will, but I’m looking forward to it. The forthcoming weeks should be interesting.

Ronnie James Dio

Nando — Sun, 16 May 2010 23:17:40 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I went to my cousin’s house to jam with him. He had invited his other cousin who plays the guitar. So, there we were: one bass player, one keyboard player, one guitarist and one stereo. We needed the stereo, so that we could hear the singer’s voice since none of us can sing (properly, I mean). We jammed three songs: Man on the Silver Mountain, Rock ‘n’ Roll Children and Rainbow in the Dark, and the voice we heard in the stereo was, of course, Dio’s. It was like Dio was there, rocking with us in that small cold room.

Well, since this morning (7:45 am) Dio, one of the greatest rock singers of all time, is no longer with us. He lost his battle to cancer. My eyes are teary while I write this small paragraph and I do not feel very well to be hones with you. I’m very, very sad. What gives me strength is knowing that his music will last forever and whenever I jam Dio’s song, I’ll be thinking of him and I’m sure his spirit will be present.

As Dio sang many times: Long live rock ‘n’roll.

Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010), rest in piece.

Surviving college! (so far)

Nando — Mon, 10 May 2010 00:55:54 +0000

Last week was the end of my first week of exams at college. I currently have five disciplines and my grades were as follows:

Portuguese I – 7.3

Psychology of learning – 8.5

Introduction to english syntax – 9.0

Strategies & techniques of teaching ESL (english as a second language) – 7.6

Text production – 8.0

In Brazil, universities grade from 0 (total failure) to 10 (excellent), where 7 is the least you can have in order to pass the discipline. So, I consider myself pretty good so far. In fact, if you consider the fact that I hadn’t studied a bit for any of them, I was quite surprised by my great good grades. Besides, there’s also the fact that being in college and having to study a lot, was something I was not used to doing since a long time ago.

Anyway, let’s the second round of exams come (in the middle of June). Can’t wait for them!

Speaking of my previous post, well, I still don’t think I belong. Well, let me re-phrase that. I do belong, but I do not blend in. There are already several groups in my classes and I feel isolated. I don’t blend in any of them. I really don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s not that I don’t talk to people there. I do. But in isolated cases only.

First week of college

Nando — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:42:30 +0000

I’ve survived the first week of college without any apparent collateral damage. The campus itself seems to be great, the people around me seem to be normal and the professors seem experienced and very nice people. So, in general, I’m pretty satisfied. Now, it’s on me!

It’s ages since I’d been in college and that’s why I thought I’d have problems to get on with people and fitting in. Well, getting on with people is still my weakest point. Being a shy and suspicious guy, I take a little while to start talking to people and becoming acquaintance with them. Specially with girls. And speaking of girls, there seem to be a huge number of them in my course! In one of the classes I even counted how many men were in there. I could count them in just one hand! And, well, two of them were obviously gay and the other one was suspicious. If I had to bet, I’d say gay too! So, around 30 women, 3 gay men and 2 men (including myself), I’d say only 10-15% of the women are dateable (does this word exist?). And even being surrounded by so many women, I bet with you that I’ll finish the term without making out with any of them. Wanna bet 50 bucks?

Anyway, the first week of college was ok. Can it get better? Sure can! Let’s hope that it gets better as early as the second week. I’ll keep you guys updated!

Putting my life back on track

Nando — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:36:07 +0000

Well, the title of this post might be wrong because I believe my life is indeed on track. Maybe, what I’m trying to say is that I want to ensure it will stay on this track for a very long time, and of course, try to be a more qualified professional.

I’ve made a tough decision: After having huge arguments with my family, disappointing some people, spending more money than I could afford, spending hours in long queues and after a lot of bureaucracy, I’m back in college. But no, I won’t resume my previous studies (engineering), I’ll study letters (Portuguese and English languages and literature). Pretty different, right? Kind of scary, I should say… But it actually is not! I’ve been in the teaching business for quite a long time now, enough time to know that this is what I like doing. Moreover, I’ve always been fascinated by english civilization and culture, which is one of the disciplines on the letters course curriculum.

What is funny is that when I was looking for some needed documents for my college enrollment, I found my high school history. Analyzing it for a couple of minutes I realized that I’ve always sucked in maths, physics and chemistry. And I was quite good in portuguese, really good in english and only average in literature. So, why the hell I chose engineering back in those days? Go figure… Teenagers make mistakes, don’t they?

Do I regret studying engineering? Do I consider it a waste of my precious years? No way! I just think it was a part of my growing up process. I gained life experience going through lots of problems during my life, and my first years of college were part of this problems. My life taught me a lot, maybe much more than I’d learn in college. But still, I think I have a gap to fill. This gap is college, and I’m willing to fill it. Do you know what I regret? I regret not having made this decision earlier!

Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier

Nando — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:42:16 +0000

Iron Maiden The Final Frontier

IRON MAIDEN are pleased to announce that their forthcoming new studio album will be called ‘THE FINAL FRONTIER‘, and is expected be released late summer of this year.

The announcement comes with news of a North American Tour with Very Special Guests Dream Theater to open in Dallas, Texas, on 9th June and finish in Washington D.C. on 20th July, making it Maiden’s most extensive North American tour in many years.

Following these shows in USA and Canada The Final Frontier World Tour will travel back to Europe for a few selected major festival and stadium shows with the band planning to continue to many other countries in 2011 (full currently confirmed dates below).

The full Live Nation North America press release for the North American Tour is posted here.

An exclusive pre-sale allowing members of the IRON MAIDEN fan club first access to tickets to the North American Maiden Shows will be made available two days prior to them being available to the public.

Tickets for the Canadian shows will go on sale to the public on Saturday 13th March at 10am PST (10am EST for Toronto and 12 noon EST Montreal).
Exclusive first access to the tickets will be available to IM fan club members on Wednesday 10th March at 10am PST through to Thursday 11th March at 6pm PST (EST for Toronto).
Regretfully due to technical reasons an exclusive Pre-Sale in Montreal is not possible.

Tickets for the US Shows will go on sale to the public on Saturday 20th March at 10am EST.
Exclusive first access to the tickets will be available to IM fan club members on Wednesday 17th March at 10am EST through to Thursday 18th March at 6pm EST

As IRON MAIDEN are actively dedicated to ensuring their fans always have access to the best possible tickets at the fairest possible price, without being subject to scalping for good seats, so many North American shows will operate, at least in part, a paperless ticket policy: More information on Ticketmaster Paperless Ticketing can be found here

To give IRON MAIDEN fan club members a privileged insight to their touring world, IMTV will return to www.ironmaiden.com to cover THE FINAL FRONTIER WORLD TOUR. This exclusive footage includes regular video from the live shows, touring, band interviews, insights into our crew and what they do and much much more. The website will also feature exclusive tour diaries, exclusive photographs and anything else that helps the fans get a real insight into the dynamics of a big tour.

THE FINAL FRONTIER 2010 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR With Very Special Guests Dream Theater
JUNE Wed 09 Fri 11 Sat 12 Mon 14 Wed 16 Thu 17 Sat 19 Sun 20 Tue 22 Thu 24 Sat 26 Tue 29 Wed 30	Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center Denver, CO – Comfort Dental Amphitheatre Albuquerque, NM – The Pavilion Phoenix, AZ – Cricket Wireless Pavilion San Bernardino, CA – San Manuel Amphitheatre Concord, CA – Sleep Train Pavilion Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre Vancouver, BC – GM Place Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Center Winnipeg, MB – MTS Center + +Dream Theater will not be performing in Winnipeg
JULY Sat 03 Wed 07 Sun 11 Mon 12 Wed 14 Thu 15 Sat 17 Sun 18 Tue 20	Toronto, ON – Molson Amphitheatre Montreal, QC – Bell Centre Holmdel, NJ – PNC New York, NY – Madison Square Garden Pittsburgh, PA – First Niagra Pavilion Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre Chicago, IL – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre Washington D.C. – Jiffy Lube Live
THE FINAL FRONTIER 2010 EUROPEAN TOUR
July 30 -Aug 1 AUGUST Thur 05 Sat 07 Sun 08 Wed 11	UK – Knebworth Sonisphere Festival Germany – Wacken Festival Sweden – Stockholm Stora Skuggan Sonisphere Festival Finland – Helsinki Pori’s Kirjurinluoto Sonisphere Festival Norway- Bergen Bergenhus Festning – Koengen

The year I was born

Nando — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:59:45 +0000

In 1978, the world was a different place.

There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo. Or Twitter, for that matter.

In 1978, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Grease. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.

Remember, that was before there were DVDs. People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty. And mostly all of that without 3D computer effects.

Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to The Deer Hunter. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Get Out Your Handkerchiefs. The top actor was Jon Voight for his role as Luke Martin in Coming Home. The top actress was Jane Fonda for her role as Sally Hyde in Coming Home. The best director? Michael Cimino for The Deer Hunter.

In the year 1978, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time wasChesapeake by James A. Michener. Oh, that’s many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cover!

In 1978… The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. The Holy Crown of Hungary is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held since World War II. Richard Chase, the “Vampire of Sacramento”, is arrested. Ethiopia declares the ambassador of West Germany Persona non grata. The control tower and some other facilities of New Tokyo International Airport, which was scheduled to open on March 31, are illegally occupied and damaged by terrorist attack by New Left activists, being forced to reschedule its opening date to May 20. Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds gets his 3,000th major league hit. Charles Chaplin’s coffin is found 10 miles from the cemetery it was stolen from, near Lake Geneva. A bomb explodes in the security section of Northwestern University, wounding a security guard in the first Unabomber attack. Charon, a satellite of Pluto, is discovered. The U.S. scientific satellite Seasat is launched. Six men rob a Lufthansa cargo facility in New York City’s Kennedy airport. Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy. Two million demonstrate against the Shah in Iran. The first Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation. The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom. Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Otello makes its first appearance on Live from the Met, in a complete production of the opera starring Jon Vickers. This is the first complete television broadcast of the opera in the U.S. since the historic 1948 one. The video game of the day was Space Invaders.

That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.

The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to Isaac Bashevis Singer. The Nobel Peace prize went to Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat and Menachem Begin. The Nobel prize for physics went to Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson from Soviet Union and the United States for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics. The sensation this created was big. But it didn’t stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn’t it?

The 1970s were indeed a special decade. Women’s liberation continued. The hippie culture faded. There was an opposition to the Vietnam war, and nuclear weapons. The environmentalist movement began. Tom Wolfe coined the decade the “Me decade” due to a new self-awareness. Mao Zedong died and the market began to liberate in China. There was an oil crisis. After the first oil shock, gasoline was rationed in many countries. In Eastern Europe, Soviet-style command economies begin showing signs of stagnation. The Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, witness the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian Arab terrorists. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The Who, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Bee Gees, Abba and others play their music. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all die at the age of 27. The space mission Apollo 13 nearly ends in disaster. Egypt signed the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. There was a revolution in Iran. The world sees its first general microprocessor. The C programming language makes its debut. Consumer video games show up on the scene. Microwave ovens become commercially available. Margaret Thatcher was victorious in the UK elections.

Do you remember the movie that was all the rage when you were 15?Sleepless in Seattle. Do you still remember the songs playing on the radio when you were 15? Maybe it was Informer by Snow. Were you in love? Who were you in love with, do you remember?

In 1978, 15 years earlier, a long time ago, the year when you were born, the song Shadow Dancing by Andy Gibb topped the US charts. Do you know the lyrics? Do you know the tune? Sing along.

You got me looking at that heaven in your eyes
I was chasing your direction
I was telling you no lies
And I was loving you
When the words you said
Baby, I lose my head
…

There’s a kid outside, shouting, playing. It doesn’t care about time. It doesn’t know about time. It shouts and it plays and thinks time is forever. You were once that kid.

When you were 9, the movie The Witches of Eastwick was playing. When you were 8, there was Labyrinth. When you were 7, there was a Disney movie out called The Great Mouse Detective. Does this ring a bell?

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… it’s 1978. There’s TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV isThe Incredible Hulk. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There’s Tic Tac Dough on now. That’s the world you were born in.

Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? The technology available today would have blown your mind in 1978. Do you know what was invented in the year you were born? The Credit-card-sized Calculator. The Solar-powered Calculator. The Spreadsheet.

On Fourth Street in Louisville in 1978
Stranded in a honky-tonk, somwhere ‘tween dates
There was a little band playin’ as I sipped my beer
But I never thought that I’d hear what I’d hear
…

That’s from the song Son of Clayton Delaney by Tom T. Hall.

In 1978, a new character entered the world of comic books: Iron Cross. Bang! Boom! But that’s just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1978, Katie Holmes was born. And Devon Sawa. Nelly Furtado, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.
It’s 2010.

The world is a different place.

What path have you taken?

taken from: http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/

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Nando — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:55:51 +0000

I really hope the explanation about the lost numbers given to us by the lost writers in the last episode, The Substitute, is not the final explanation. It can’t be something like “Jacob has a thing for numbers…” It seems a lazy, lazy explanation. There’s still a lot to explain about them. Like for example, why the hell Desmond had to push those buttons in the hatch? Why Hurley was told the numbers? And what about that Valenzetti equation that predicts the end of the world? See, still a lot to explain…