MarciOnline: Bayão

MarciOnline: Bayão: "Os alemães são os maiores fãs do Brasil. Todo alemão que tem uma casa, principalmente das classes B e C, faz no fundo do quintal uma praiaz..."

Responsible Tourism

Traveling as a tourist means enjoying things rapidly. Escaping from routine is like a relief for the mind and soul, though. People book accommodation, transportation, tours - if they have chance to do in advance - but sometimes forget to be responsible. That is the fact of caring about the environment at the destination.


Travelers should notice that it’s not only them that will remember the trip. The locals will remember it too. Whenever people visit different places than their own, there are positive and negative effects.


Responsible tourism tackles challenges in tourism nowadays. It started as a demand that ecological organizations would ask from societies. It grew up to guides and manuals edited by companies interested in the wellbeing of the planet.


Tourism is a lucrative business, generating almost six billions dollars in Brazil alone, in 2008. It’s going to be as lucrative as there are things to see. It makes sense to promote responsibility in tourism. All sides need to understand how to minimize their impact/actions – the tourists when bringing lots of packaging to remote areas for example, and the businesses owners, whose facilities don’t comply with energy saving rules.


Things are slowly changing. There are documented stories, like the ones at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel. It recently minimized its effects in the neighborhood by composting food scraps, and recycling different materials. The business is just following other hotel steps.


People are accepting these attitudes more and more. Tourists are probably going to include good deeds in their ‘to do’ lists in a future not too far (hopefully).

Malbec Wine



Malbec grapes. Picture from http://wine-tasting-reviews.com/


Now that I’m in my home country again, it’s often easy to enjoy food I really like, which is food made in Brazil. They are açaí ‘smoothie’, pão de queijo, feijoada – Brazilians know better. My friends in town introduced me to something new, but not something from my own country.It’s simply wine, which I know, but from Argentina, the Malbec wine. This is a wine I wasn’t aware of.


My friends, Daniel, Márcio, and I were drinking beer at Daniel and Carol’s place one day, when Carol called our attention for a TV show, which topic was wines.

The program’s segment was showing the Malbec wine. That particular wine is delicious, according to them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t taste right there.


Back home, I commented the wine to my sister. She said the wine is made of grapes only grown at the Andes Mountains. ‘Uhh’, I thought – it is real special wine. I haven’t heard about it overseas.


Few days later I already tasted my first Malbec. Today I tried this one named, Elsa Bianchi, from 2009. Both of them are great. The latter is though crisp.


What I found out is that Malbec is minor wine in California, and it’s added to other wines only to give a bit of consistency. Bordeaux and Médoc, in France, use it in a very small scale. Nonetheless, Malbec is very good in Argentina, ‘where the heat and dryness bring out the best of your character’.


It is enough for me to keep enjoying it.

Brazil and the South African experience

Nice place to surf and play soccer. 

South Africa, a country in development, hosted this year's World Cup. It is now time for Brazil to do the same in four years time. What experiences can Brazil learn from South Africa? Apart from the uncomfortable noise of the vuvuzelas, it was an admirable spectacle to watch, but the country had to make lots of arrangements to accomplish the feat.


Many South Africans claim, however, it was a World Cup owned by FIFA, soccer's international organizing body, instead of a World Cup by South Africa. The point of view of how tickets were sold and the opening concert organized was predominantly European. An aspect that Brazil has to take care of.


Along with these facts, South African minister of tourism inquired the hospitality industry, whether the hotel prices were too high or not. It follows concerns that the flight tickets became costly too. This practice is not new, and it is observed in other sports as well, when there are major events schedulled.

The infrastructure of the country was questioned by New York Times readers, in relation to declarations by Danny Jordaan, head of the South African committee. He stated that the infrastructure in South Africa for the World Cup would be superior than 'any previous tournament host', but the train tickets were difficult to book, and the train station's staff wasn't helpful prior to the beginning of the competition.

Brazil has to observe such problems in order to deliver a beautiful show. FIFA has to work together with the country's committee to understand the internal ambience, and the Brazilians need to improve the organization of the tournament.

100% Pure New Zealand

New Zealand was a good ride. One week and a half of short trips and sightseeing. Before that, I was living in Australia for a long while, and, my apologies to all, I thought both countries would be the same. I mean, there is a sense of community between the two nations, and it caused me to think they were one.

Of course, they are not the same. Different history, different politics, industries… Different mentality. Yes, it does make a difference. Not staying as long there as I did in Australia, I could not say whether there was a huge difference between societies or not. It is too short a time to tell.

What I could see was the sightseeing, and the difference was there. Auckland – the city that I stayed the most – has billboards displaying reasonably good ads. They were quite intelligent and cheeky. There was something inside of me telling 'I kinda knew it'.

Billboard near Halminton, NZ.

What I’m saying is, Australia's advertising industry compared to New Zealand's is creatively poor ( not only New Zealand ). I wanted to stay In Australia for good, but thankfully I did not. My aim was building a career in marketing and advertising. I do not think I would be happy there. On the other hand, I heard about New Zealand’s advertising, and I liked it.

                               Billboards near Beach road,in Auckland,NZ.


It is not only me saying Australia does not make good advertising. The British media coverage website, The Drum, reveals that in 2009, the ASB, the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau, received 4000 complaints in relation to bad ads. In 2008, the same association in the United Kingdom, got 2500 viewers complaints.

Australian tourism campaigns turn out to be known for bad taste, instead of good publicity. This opinion is also shared on the Truth.Travel website. There is also a channel on YouTube on bad Australian ads called Badaussietelly. No need to say anything else perhaps.

New Zealand ads are fun and witty, and this is something Australia is finding hard to be. In this sense, only an alternative Aussie TV program about advertising, The Gruen Transfer, would bring the discussion on prime time, and talk about it. Nonetheless, it pokes its jealous finger on NZ’s ads.

I´M OUT OF THE BED AND DRESSED - WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?*

* quote by Banksy

Ahh, while in Auckland, NZ, my girlfriend and I found time to watch 'Exit Through the Gift Shop', by Banksy, a British artist. It was better than expected, considering the fact Kat and I are both artists, well, in our free time, at least. She draws whatever entices her, unicorns, dolphins, yeah, kinda fairy things, and I, cartoons, people's face details...

Not only because of that we would watch this flick, but because it seemed really fun. Also it has been screening for a long time already and with so much buzz, we "needed" to see it. The result was really captivating!

Mr Brainwash (Guetta), Banksy (Banksy), Shepard Fairey, and others are amazing people.

Art was made very entertaining at 'Exit Through ...'. In the movie, Banksy says to anyone 'to do art.' I wouldn't be artsy on a regular basis. Maybe just in my 'free' time, and not so incisive as it is portrayed in the flick. The movie shows art mostly in this perspective, and as a share of the street art movement.

Going from art to fitness for a little while, the monthly publication Men's Health magazine has displayed on its pages that people who scribble and draw, develop mental focus and stimulate the brain.

Art is all about that. You make yourself entertained and develop new abilities. Mr Brainwash is a proof of that (!!) Well, Banksy may deny it, but I think he's a bit creative indeed!

The social network soundtrack

Poster of 'facebook' movie on a bus stop, in Melbourne CBD

This weekend I went to the movies to see 'The Social Network', which I was anxious for a while. Bear with me - the movie is good, the story is utterly interesting. I value facebook now more than before - which wasn't much.

I was impressed by the cathartic pace of the film, and for the most of it, it runs like a documentary (a very good one). The film tends to be very analytic on the story, and it feels like you are watching the news on TV, but it is David Fincher, and it's his way to tell a story. I think it is his personal touch, and it's cool.

How can I say anything different about this movie than other popular sources did, like New York Times, Business Week? Well, I can't. What other sources paid little attention to is the amazing soundtrack, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I don't know if sighting Trent Reznor's name in the intro of the movie influenced me a bit - I have always been a fan of his band Nine Inch Nails. On the other hand, never heard about Atticus Ross, but, as it looks like, he has done a good job too!

The tracks are compelling, to say the least. They take the audience away and board them at this fantastic new reality, the first year of facebook. My girlfriend quote the songs as 'video game' soundtrack. Facebook is a game indeed: one of the co-founders won, Mark Zuckerberg, so I acknowledged her impressions.

The soundtrack could be compared to a hobby of Trent Reznor. I don't really know what his hobbies might be like, but to portray the songs as an intensive share of the movie like that, it's something that deserves an encore.