The Tupi Tabloid, Decline and Waterfall

Bicho de sete cabeças: Racketeer «Captain» Guimarães (left) with Rio mayor Cesar «The Naked» Maia (second from left), Carnval 2007. A steady drip of confidential criminal intel maintains the diversified gambling racketeer Carlinhos Cachoeira — «Charlie Waterfall» — at the top of the Brazilian newshour, 24-7. The vigorous Rashomon effect observed seems to flow in [...]

Teixeira | «End of an Era»

Ricardo Teixeira já era. Columnist Juca Kfouri dances on the grave of a perpetual Rei Momo of Brazilian soccer. Ricardo Teixeira is history. Sergeant Garcia finally arrested Zorro Brazil, and not just football, has good reason for celebration. Teixeira is leaving not only  the governing CBF but also, and more importantly, the World Cup local organizing [...]

TV Cultura | Monday Morning Massacre

Agência Brasil reports. Changes were announced this week in the programming and staff of São Paulo public broadcaster TV Cultura. Fifty-sex employees of the journalism,, production and other departments will be leaving the station, while Metropolis host Cadão Volpato is on the list of names that will no longer work for the public broadcaster maintained by [...]

Culture Wars | Pagef***er Strikes Back

Via Folha de S. Paulo (Brazil) The state high court of  São Paulo has handed down a restraining order obliging Google to exclude sites from its search results that retransmit, live and without authorization, the  TV programming of the Globo network. The order obtained by Globo and Globosat was handed down by Judge Denise Cavalcante Fortes Martins [...]

Tuesday Newsday | Carnaval

In a scene reminiscent of Bush v. Gore (2000), the voting process for this year’s competitive Carnaval parades in São Paulo is beset by chaos. As the envelopes with the jurors’ votes inside were opened on Tuesday afternoon, Tiago Ciro Tadeu Farias, 29, wearing the T-shirt of Império de Casa Verde, broke into the location [...]

Vulture Culture | An Impromptu Link Sociology

Item: SEC Launches Inquiry Aimed at Private Equity. Federal regulators have launched a wide-ranging inquiry into the private-equity industry that examines how firms value their investments, among other matters. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division sent letters to private-equity firms of various sizes in early December as part of an “informal inquiry,” according to the [...]

Can She Still Canecão?

This would make an exemplary case study for a backgrounder of Brazilian culture policy — if anyone care to care about such things. Judging from the Ministry of Culture subsidies for Disney’s Hollywood on Ice recently, I would says there is something to it. The Mexican entertainment company CIE has sounded out the Federal University [...]

Brazilian ASCAP Faces Antitrust Probe

Six of us see the sequel to Elite Squad for about USD$2. To see it in the theatre might have cost USD$70.  Ever since the incoming Minister of Culture took a firm stance against heavily promoted alternative models of global copyright such as Creative Commons — though not necessarily copyleft — her supposed ties to [...]

ECAD | Razing The Royalties Machine

Above: Scandal at ECAD — the Brazilian ASCAP! Cruelty to the beloved Creative Commons! A reform of authorial rights legislation that would prevent the labels from keeping everything! Falling out with prominent leftist intellectual Emir Sader, who is disinvited from heading the Rui Barbosa Institute!  Since the media blitz began here — Bring Me the [...]

Brazil | Media Blitz Hits MiniCult!

Scandal at ECAD — the Brazilian ASCAP! Cruelty to the beloved Creative Commons! Reform of authorial rights legislation that would prevent the labels from keeping everything! Falling out with prominent leftist intellectual Emir Sader, who is disinvited from heading Rui Barbosa Institute!  The Scandalometer: Spooky Silence The media environment in Brazil has been relatively tranquil [...]