RAPIDINHAS

RAPIDINHAS

More and more artists are taking control of their own recordings.
Rita Peixoto and Carlos Fuchs have taken self-production several steps further.
By Brazzil Magazine

"No one was born with a rigid sexual role, everybody is everything in a bigger or
smaller degree, the rest is fear of ridiculous and absurd ghosts, that never sustained
themselves on their misty little legs."

"We live according to rules and standards for which no human being was made."

"Exclusive heterosexuality, limitation. Exclusive homosexuality, limitation.
Bisexuality, normal… Pansexuality, the future, the chance of universalizing love’s
aggregating force."

"I didn’t sin against luxury. The one who sins is he who doesn’t do what he was
created to do."

"Taking it on your thighs is something that requires know-how to be decently
enjoyed. The woman has to train her posture, to be sure that she will reach an
orgasm—even more so when the man is semi-adolescent and comes in two tenths of a
second."

"I have a fixation in the oral phase, cannibalistic oral phase naturally; I adore
every form of ingestion. At that time I was already hooked on this kind of fixation, today
this is perfectly clear."

"The devirginating was really a great day…. Virginity you only lose once, and
since I had created the opportunity to get rid of it the way I had imagined, I would not
waste such full satisfaction."

Crime
Disarming Rio

"Rio, lower your weapon!" With this catchy slogan, Rio de Janeiro’s governor
Anthony Garotinho has started a campaign to reduce the number of weapons in the state and
in turn reduce the crime rate. He promises the effort will be serious and concrete and not
just a new publicity stunt. Garotinho wants to forbid the sale of weapons in the entire
state. According to insiders, today there are approximately one million weapons—legal
and illegal—in the state of Rio in the hands of civilians. Numbers from Rio’s
Secretaria de Segurança Pública (Bureau of Public Security) reveal that the number of
legal weapons is about 600,000. Garotinho is sponsoring a bill by Assemblyman Carlos Minc
from the leftist PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers’ Party). Minc’s proposal
forbids commercialization of pistols, revolvers, and bullets, among other devices.

The governor has threatened to impose sanctions on weapons stores in case the project
is not approved. One way of doing this would be by not renewing or issuing new permits for
this kind of business. "And how about the constitution?", a reporter asked.
"Unconstitutional is shooting all over," he answered.

Rubem César Fernandes, executive secretary of the peoples’ empowerment movement Viva
Rio and one of the leaders of the antigun initiative, has made a special appeal to women
to participate in the campaign by ridding their own homes of weapons. He said, "By
and large, women fear weapons and they are the ones who suffer the consequences of the
violence by losing husbands, sons, and fathers because they were armed."

Garotinho has compared past governmental efforts to disarm the population to drying
ice. "The only way for us to get a positive result," he said, "is by
eliminating half of the weapons we have now."

There will be no new weapon registration. Surprise traffic blitzes will be intensified.
Every legal weapon found will have to be re-registered and illegal ones will be destroyed.
On the other hand, the Bureau of Security will create a Center of Intelligence in order to
find how illegal weapons fall in the hands of civilians.

According to sub-secretary of Security Luís Eduardo Soares, the initiative inspired by
New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani is to be taken seriously: "The government and police
will actively participate. The basic idea is zero tolerance for weapons."

Health
What’s Wrong
With the Kids

In São Paulo, Brazil’s richest city, 46.5 percent of the children who are five years
old or younger suffer from anemia. This is the same rate nationwide for children up to
three years of age. And as the São Paulo case illustrates, the problem that does not only
affect the poor has become worse in recent years. Escola Paulista de Medicina, an elite
medical school from São Paulo, has been studying the situation since the 70’s when it
pioneered the study of anemia in the country. They found at that time that 23 percent of
the five-year-old or younger children had anemia, a lack of iron in the blood.

When the study was repeated in 1985 by Núcleo de Pesquisas Epidemiológicas em
Nutrição e Saúde (Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health) from USP
(Universidade de São Paulo) the rate of child anemia had increased to 35.5 percent. The
index is even worse with younger children. Currently in São Paulo, 67 percent of babies
between six and 24 months of age suffer from anemia. And the problem starts with mothers,
30 percent of whom are also anemic.

Is there a special reason for these alarming rates? Carlos Augusto Monteiro, who leads
the USP research team, thinks he has the answer. In an interview with Brasília’s daily, Correio
Braziliense, he said: "This increase can be related to the type of today’s diet
which is based mainly on milk." Milk, unless it’s mother’s milk, he says, does not
contain iron even though it has most of the nutrients needed by a child.

The Health Ministry knows what to do, but complains there are not enough resources.
Despite this, it has just started a program to guarantee that 300,000 children in 512
municipalities in nine northeastern states get weekly iron supplements.

Music
Betrayeds’
Anthem

A composer, who for more than three decades has been singing of unrequited love and
betrayed lovers, has become an unexpected sensation and cult singer among the Brazilian
middle-class in the South with a song he composed and has been performing for 14 years.
The tune is called "Garçon" and the composer is the Recifense (from
Recife, state of Pernambuco) raised in Rio, Reginaldo Rossi, 54.

Rossi sings a kind of campy music known as brega, whose lyrics tell stories with
such exaggerated colors and drama that they become funny and cult. He went back to his
hometown Recife in the 70’s looking for the applause and fame he was not getting in the
Rio-São Paulo axis and there became King of the Romantic Song in the Northeast. Rossi had
started composing songs for the Jovem Guarda movement. He is the author, for example, of
"O Pão" (The Hunk), which in 1966 became a hit sung by Sérgio Murilo.

The recent fame of the singer/composer came through Bahia. It was the singing of
"Garçon" by celebrities such as Beijo and Cheiro de Amor bands as well as Jamil
e uma Noites and Ricardo Chaves that has spread the tune as a legitimate Baiano sound and
given it extra appeal.

Rossi has been enjoying his sudden fame. In a recent interview with Rio’s daily Jornal
do Brasil he said: "Before, in every bar party people would sing `Boemia, aqui me
tens de regresso…’ (Bohemia, you have me back here). Today everyone sings
"Garçon."" He also explained the popularity of the tune: "It
expresses in a simple way the drama that everyone from the trashman to the President faces
one day: the pain to be betrayed by the woman he loves."

With admitted flourishes for dramatic impact, Rossi introduces his songs on shows or
CDs with a text that explains the origin of the tune. Before singing "Garçon"
he tells that he used to be a "scoundrel who betrayed his little woman three times a
week" until he finds her in bed with Ronaldinho, who says: "I’ve already scored
15 goals." He doesn’t commit any violence against the man or the woman but goes to a
bar, where he composes the song, which gets the immediate verdict: "It will be a
smashing hit".

To the press Rossi gives another version. According to it, he was once visited by a
singer friend who complained to be without money and to have been betrayed by his wife.
The song was done in three days. The composer felt he had a hit on his hands, but resisted
the temptation to sing it himself. But that’s what he ended up doing anyway when the
producer felt that his friend didn’t have the right voice for that kind of song.

The new version of "Garçon" released last year by Sony has already sold
around 300,000 copies. The CD also contains, among other tunes, "A Raposa e as
Uvas" (The Fox and the Grapes), French-titled "Mon Amour, Meu Bem, Ma
Femme" (My Love, My Sweetie, My Wife) and "Tô Doidão" (I’m Stir Crazy).

Rossi attributes his success to his sloppy way of doing his shows. "My show has no
scenario, no direction, no dancers. I get on stage not knowing what I am going to sing.
That’s why I’ve been singing for 30 years."

Garçon

Reginaldo Rossi

Garçon, aqui nessa mesa de bar
Você já cansou de escutar
Centenas de casos de amor
Garçon, no bar todo mundo é igual
Meu caso é mais um, é banal
Mas preste atenção, por favor
Saiba que o meu grande amor
Hoje vai se casar
E mandou uma carta pra me avisar
Deixou em pedaços o meu coração
E pra matar a tristeza,
só mesa de bar
Quero tomar todas
Vou me embriagar
Se eu pegar no sono
Me deite no chão
Garçon, eu sei que eu tô
enchendo o saco
Mas todo bebum fica chato
Valente, e tem toda razão
Garçon, mas eu só quero chorar
Eu vou minha conta pagar
Por isso eu lhe peço atenção

Waiter

 

Waiter, here on this bar table
You’re tired of listening
To hundreds of love stories
Waiter, in the bar everyone is equal
My case is just another one, it’s banal
But pay attention, please
See, my great love
Is getting married today
And sent me a letter to tell me
Leaving my heart in pieces
And to ease the sadness,
only a table of a bar
I want to drink all
I’m getting drunk
If I fall asleep
Lay me down on the floor
Waiter, I know I am
getting on your nerves
But all drunks become pests
Bully, and are always right
Waiter, but all I want is to cry
I’m going to pay my bill
So I ask your attention

Behavior
Miracle
Express

Pure capitalism? Printing shop owners say it is not, but a Saint Expedito fever that
has been sweeping the nation has become a blessing for them. Three million santinhos
(cards with the stamp of the saint) were printed in one month by a São Paulo printer
alone, which is conveniently called Santo Expedito. The fad is being fueled by an economic
crisis that has seen record unemployment, recession, and the fear of a return of
unmanageable inflation.

Similar to a chain letter but in a much larger scale, people who are granted a grace
are supposed to print 1,000 of the santinhos, which bear the necessary prayer to
get a grace as well as the warning that 1,000 new santinhos need to be printed. The
little cards with the saint can be seen everywhere: at shop counters, private companies,
hospitals, and churches.

"Pure economic profiteering, just a marketing strategy from the printing
shops," says Father Fernando Altemeyer, from the São Paulo Metropolitan Curia . In
an interview with Jornal da Tarde, Altemeyer said there is no evidence that there
was a Saint Expedito, who is celebrated on April 19. These doubts, however, did not
prevent Saint Expedito from becoming the patron saint of the military police.

Who is the saint depicted in a red cape holding a crucifix and a palm branch? According
to some biographers, he was an Armenian legionnaire who in 303 AD was decapitated by Roman
Emperor Diocletian, accused of being a Christian. In accordance with his name the saint is
best known for expediting things, granting graces faster than his heavenly colleagues.

(The santinho’s back)

Prayer to Saint Expedito

Feast April 19. Celebrated every 19

If you have any PROBLEM OF DIFFICULT SOLUTION and need URGENT HELP, ask Saint Expedito
for help, who is the saint of businesses that need ready solution and whose invocation is
never too late.

Prayer – My Saint Expedito of the just and urgent causes, help me in this hour of
distress and despair, intercede for me before Our Lord Jesus Christ! You who are a warrior
saint, you who are the saint of the distressed, you who are the saint of the despaired,
you who are the saint of the urgent causes, protect me, help me, give me strength, courage
and serenity. Heed my request: "Make the request." Help me to overcome these
difficult hours, protect me against all those who can harm me, protect my family, heed my
request urgently. Give me back peace and tranquility. I will be grateful for the rest of
my life and I will take your name to all those who have faith. Thank you. Pray 1 Our
Father, 1 Hail Mary, and make the sign of the cross.

Know the Church of Saint Expedito

Rua Quedas, 564 – Parada Inglesa – São Paulo – SP

Printed at Editora Santo Expedito

R$38 one thousand

Tel: (011) 69511.2099

or call free 0800.55.1904

Free delivery at your home in all of Brazil

As a way of saying thanks I ordered the printing and distributed one thousand of these
prayers to spread the benefits of the great Saint Expedito. You too should order the
printing soon after you make your request.

Health
Pee
Therapy

Father Durval dos Santos is a defender of alternative medicine and the author of
best-selling books Rejuvenescer Comendo e Bebendo (Rejuvenating by Eating and
Drinking), As Plantas (The Plants), Meus Amores e Curas (My Loves and
Cures), and Curas com Urina (Cures with Urine), and others. He also does and
recommends something that most people would not consider very religious: drinking urine
daily to cure and prevent a series of diseases.

According to dos Santos, among the afflictions that urine can cure are baldness,
impotence, chronic hepatitis and even cancer. He cites close to five dozen other diseases
curable with urine. What’s good in the popular pee? It contains lots of good stuff,
including vitamins, hormones, mineral salts and amino acids, says the priest. To keep
healthy you need to drink half a liter a day. To avoid serious diseases the dose increases
to one liter and to cure cancer the amount to be consumed becomes elephantine: up to five
liters of the yellow liquid daily.

Father Durval and others who defend this practice are reviled by doctors who consider
urine plain and useless trash eliminated by the body. The ingestion of the liquid
according to them is dangerous and can cause gastritis and lack of appetite.

The priest continues to find new uses for urine, though. He preaches, for example, that
the product is an excellent skin cream. He believes that the human body produces no
garbage and that everything produced is for self-defense. Nose secretion, for example,
would be good to heal wounds. The same goes for saliva. The priest is now studying the
therapeutic properties of human feces.

In an interview with Goiânia (capital of Goiás state) daily Diário da Manhã,
the controversial priest declared: "I drink urine everyday, naturally, why should I
waste it?"

Nation
Free With
Catches

The Brazilian Catholic Church was the organization in charge of issuing birth,
marriage, and death certificates in Brazil almost until the end of the Empire. It was D.
Pedro II, who in March 1888, just one year before being deposed, turned these
registrations into a public service. The task, however, for lack of state structure soon
went into private hands with the understanding that the service would be provided at no
cost. It never was. A law passed last year reaffirmed this obligation, but again the
legislation has been mostly ignored.

In Brasília, the nation’s capital, for example, the owners of the ten cartórios de
registro civil (civilian registration notary publics) have adapted the law to their
own taste. There, only the poor get the birth or death certificate for free. And how do
they know you are poor? The person has to declare that he or she cannot pay. In an
interview with Brasília’s daily Correio Braziliense, Emival Moreira, president of
Associação de Notários e Registradores do DF (Anoreg-DF), said, `’While the rich pay
for the poor we will continue to work. If not, everybody will be without a
certificate." According to Moreira, these certificates bring two thirds of all the
money collected monthly by the cartórios.

In bigger cities, some notaries that perform functions like offering escrow and trust
deed services are subsidizing birth and death certificates, but in smaller towns across
the country the obligation of free certificates is being completely ignored. An amendment
to the law creating a fund to compensate losses was presented last year, but it was vetoed
by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

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