É carnaval !!!

O Rio de Janeiro está em pleno ritmo de carnaval. Cariocas e turistas de diversos lugares acompanharam os vários blocos que sairam no último fim de semana e se preparam para mais uma maratona esta semana.
No sábado passado, dia 26, desfilaram pelas ruas de Santa Teresa os tradicionais blocos Céu na Terra e Rio Maracatu. Nem a fina chuva que insiste em cair na cidade espantou os foliões, que desde às 9 da manhã aguardavam fantasiados a saída dos blocos.
A Orquestra Popular Céu na Terra é famosa no carnaval carioca onde desfila, desde 2001, pelas ladeiras do bairro, puxando a multidão, que segue o bondinho, onde os músicos tocam as tradicionais marchinhas de carnaval.


Um dos desfiles do bloco Céu na Terra


Já o Rio Maracatu realiza desfiles, cortejos e shows de reconhecida qualidade musical. Os cortejos do bloco em Santa Teresa e na orla de Ipanema, atraem muitas pessoas em uma grande confraternização musical. No repertório do bloco, muitos ritmos, cantos e danças tradicionais brasileiras, como a Ciranda, o Côco, o Samba, além do Maracatu.
Isso foi apenas uma pequena prévia do que vem por aí, já que o carnaval começa, oficialmente, no dia 02 de fevereiro. Mas até lá, alguns blocos arrastam algumas centenas de foliões pelas ruas da cidade, com muito batuque, alegria, confete e serpentina.

E, para não ficar de fora da folia, o Castelinho38 está com fantasias à venda, bem como tíquets para os desfiles das escolas de samba.
No domingo, dia 03, desfilam no Sambódromo a São Clemente, Porto da Pedra, Salgueiro, Portela, Mangueira e Viradouro. E, na segunda-feira, para os que ainda tiverem disposição, é a vez da Mocidade, Unidos da Tijuca, Imperatriz, Vila Isabel, Grande Rio e Beija-Flor.


Desfile da Beija-Flor de Nilópolis, a grande vencedora do carnaval 2007


Se você vai se hospedar aqui no Castelinho38, garanta logo a sua fantasia, as entradas para os desfiles e caia na folia !!

GUEST OF THE MONTH (JANUARY)

Born in London (UK) to a Barbadian father and British-Jamaican mother, Soweto Kinch is one of the most exiting and versatile young musicians to hit the British jazz scene in recent years.

Kinch began playing saxophone at the age of nine after learning clarinet at primary school. After meeting Wynton Marsalis four years later he discovered and became passionate about jazz, first concentrating on piano and later, in his teens, focusing on alto saxophone.

He is a talented saxophonist who has won numerous accolades including the Rising Star Award at the 2002 BBC Jazz Awards and the prestigious White Saxophone prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2003 and 2007 he won the MOBO prize for Best Jazz Act. In the same year his debut album Conversations With The Unseen was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but Kinch lost to grime MC Dizzee Rascal. 2004 saw Kinch win two BBC Radio Jazz Awards; Best Instrumentalist and Best Band along with the Peter Whittingham Award for Jazz Innovation.

If you don't know Soweto's works yet, here are tow tips: ‘A Life in the Day of B19: Tales of the Towerblock’ e
‘Conversations With The Unseen’. Check it out!!!



Jam session at Castelinho38 (Soweto, Casey, Hej)

Castelinho38 no Cantinho da Fofoca

A chuva que tem caído no Rio resolveu dar uma trégua e ontem, dia 24, staff e hóspedes do Castelinho38 resolveram sair para comemorar o aniversário da Eryka, a mais recente membro da nossa equipe.
Fomos até o Cantinho da Fofoca, um bar íntimo e aconchegante que fica na Glòria, outro tradicional bairro da cidade. O bar oferece uma programação cultural variada que prima pelo bom gosto. Somado a isso, a casa ainda oferece cachaças artesanais mineiras, cerveja gelada e petiscos deliciosos. Antigos aparelhos de televisão, telefones e bicicletas compõem a decoração peculiar do local.
Às quintas-feiras um grupo de músicos sempre se reúnem para uma jam session de jazz e nesta quinta contou com a participação do saxsofonista inglês Soweto Kinch, que roubou a cena e arrancou muitos aplausos do público.


Soweto Kinch

E foi nesse ambiente de alegria e descontração que começamos a esquentar os tamborins... No fim de semana nossos amigos Soweto, Casey, Toyn, Christian e Martin terão a oportunidade de conhecer um pouco do nosso carnaval de rua. È que no sábado dois blocos desfilam pelas ruas de Santa Teresa: o Céu na Terra e o Rio Maracatu.
Com certeza serão outros momentos inesquecíveis!

DESTINATION AFRICA PART 4

A few hours after Castelinho38 High Commission decided to book the Tazara
train, which would have taken us from Dar Es Salaam to Lusaka (capital of
Zambia)in just 46hs journey, we have seen in the news that Zambia had just
declared an emergency state due to the latest flooding and heavy rains.



We therefore went for plan B, but before that, we went up to Kwendwa, north of
Zanzibar. Here there are many resorts and on the beach there are mainly
MUZUNGOS ( white men - in swhaili language), but the sae colour and the beach
are just unbeliveble and we have taken some pictures to prove it.



The plan B was to flight from Zanzibar to Johannesburg in South Africa and
from there continue toward Mozambique. After a long journey we ve arrived in
South Africa and a series of good coincidences we ended up in South West
Township, better known worldwide as SOWETO.



Castelinho38 has found in LEBO's Backpackers (www.sowetobackpackers.com)a home
and many friends.The people here is simply superb, very gentle and kind.
With Lebo we went for a bike tour around soweto, met the locals, had South
african beer and discover an incredible world which is part of African History.
We have officially invited our friends to come to Rio, hopefully they will be
able to come soon in order to strenght our african relationships.

DESTINATION AFRICA PART 3

Castelinho38 High Commission entered Tanzania via Namanga on a small bus. After the procedures at the border we arrived in Arusha on the feet of Mountain Kilimanjaro, the highest pick in Africa. From here we left for a two days Safari, first in the Terengire National Park where we encountered again many of the most famous animal, especially Elephants and Giraffes together with hundreds of Tze Tze flies.



We spent the night in a fantastic camping top of Rift Valley escarpment, under an incredible sky, got up early in the morning to see the sun rising and then drive with our old Land Rover ( and its local driver) to Ngorongoro Creater, one of the most stunning Reservation Area in Africa. Inside this creater at more then 2000 mt on see level, we have seen again lions, zebras, wildbeasts, yenas, monkeys and many others, not to mention an incredible landscape and vegetation.



From Arusha we then got a bus to Dar es Saalam, Tanzania s capital on the cost of East Africa, where after more than 10hs of jorney we arrive at night in a very hot and humid big city. Here C38 HC spent a couple of days to do some shopping, visit the city and prepare the next stops of our trip.




After a 2 hours Ferry ride we finally arrive in the island of Zanzibar, which is without doubts one of the most amazing and fascinating place on earth. This is the island of spices, from where Sultans, Portuguese and British were controlling their trades in the Indian Ocean.
Here muslims, indians and christians lives together in peace for centuries and africans, persian, arabs, europeans have mixed with each other into the Swhaili culture.

Zanzibar old town is easy to discover, and people are very friendly and interesting. We felt very much at home at Clove Hotel ( www.zanzibarhotel.nl ), a three floors house in the old town, with charming and well decoreted rooms and a breathtaking roof top terrace where breakfast is serve and late evening chill out take place.



In Zanzibar our favorite place has been the local market, where you can find everything from fresh fishes to muslim dresses, quick meals or football tshirts. It s now here Mango season and Pineapple is simply delicious. The Zanzibar apple is what in Brasil we call Jambo fruit, and Jambo in Swhaili means Hello! It seems to us that this fruit has been introduce in Brasil by someone coming from Zanzibar.




There are so many fascinating stories about how this island was the centre of the main routes and trades during last 4 centuries. Slave trade, expeditions, sailing boats and pirates
We ve been able to find one of them hidden in a small hotel room in town (pictured above with the face covered and his tatoo) who you might be able to recognaize.
C38 High Commission is taking a few days in the northern beaches of the island before catching the Tazara Train on next tuesday. This train should take us in Zambia, our next destination from where we ll send some more african news ... Jambo, Jambo!

Festa de boas vindas à 2008

O Castelinho38 começou 2008 com o pé direito.
Logo na primeira semana tivemos a inauguração da exposição ‘da figura ou quase’ e no último sábado, dia 12, reunimos aproximadamente 400 pessoas para mais uma festa.
O forte calor do dia serviu como um tempero especial.....
Animação, gente bonita, pizzas deliciosas, bebida gelada e música, muita música. Este foi o tom da noite, que também celebrava o início da construção do barco do nosso amigo Peter Mirow.
A festa foi comandada pela DJ Marie L (Berlim) e nos intervalos entraram em cena os MC’s Opala e CM (Chokito Maligno), além dos DJ’s Dom Pedro e Dudu.
Embalados pelas batidas eletrônicas e ritmos nacionais, muitos viram o sol nascer do terraço do castelinho as 6 da manha quando a festa terminou.

Obrigado a todos e um bom 2008

Retrospective 2007 - Part II

Casa Claugia magazine

In the second half of the year, during the month of September, the photographers and plastic artists, Fernanda Antoun, Alex Topini and Ale Souto utilized the space of Castelinho38 for the exhibition “Integral-Ação+Espaço+Linguagem”. In the garage Alê Souto presented the installation “Desmanche ao Leo” and in the main room Fernanda Antoun and Alex Topini presented photographs from the project “Ir e Vir” and “Cubos”.

We Closed the year in the company of the musician Mike Marshall and with the party “We Smell Nice”. Marshall enchanted all of us with his inspired music. Cariocas and tourists from various locales had the chance to check out Marshall’s strong and delicate work first hand at the Carioca Cultural Centre.

The “We Smell Nice” party was another success. Aproximately 500 people were here to celebrate the birthdays of the plastic artist Marcos Chaves, DJ Mary Byker, and the one year anniversary of the opening of Castelhino38. Of course, we also said “bye bye to 2007” with much happiness and music!

Now our staff is gearing up for 2008. From January on we will host a varied mix of artists, video projects and even some classes for our guests and local Santa Teresa residents. We’re excited about the New Year and wish our guests-- past, present and future— happiness in the coming 12 months. Happy New Year!

Retrospective 2007 - Part I

Art and architecture will always walk side by side. Here at Castelinho38 this connection is always present. The past year was culturally rich for us. We made new partnerships, opened cultural events, and diverse expositions decorated our rooms. Contigo magazine completed a photo essay at Castelinho38 and we were featured in two magazine articles: “Viver em Santa Teresa” in Casa Claudia (Nov./2007) and “Torres Cariocas” in the Journal do Brasil’s Domingo magazine (Nov./2007). The telenovela “Amor e Intrigas” also filmed on location at Castelinho38. So much to talk about! Let’s take it in parts...

In the beginning of the year we hosted a plastic arts exposition by Fabiola Moraes. With a Master’s in cultural heritage and a concentration in anthropology, the artist seeks in her work to analytically consider images of diverse origin, such as urban scenes or icons from the history of art, with the purpose of emphasizing features and particular structures. Some of her work, like other artists that also exhibited here in 2007 (Nilton Pinho, Fernando Mendonça, Jean-Baptiste Dechery, Adriano Melhem, Maria di Andréa, Peter Miro, and Zé Abbra) can be seen in our rooms.

During February we hosted the theatre group “Sobrevento” specialists in animation and puppet’s theatre. Soon after, in April and May, the theatre group “Lume” graced our space. In their “Carioca” season they conducted theatrical presentations and workshops. Tadashi Endo, director, choreographer, and Japanese ballet dancer, celebrated his 60th birthday with us by performing three shows here in Rio.


Sobrevento's show


Dr. Brian Wilson (Babalawo Ifa Adentunde professor of Contemporary Percussion at Brooklyn College of Music in New York) also spent time at Castelinho38. He was here to participate in a cultural exchange program that seeks to share and spread knowledge on “Ifa: African Wisdom”. The program allowed us to better understand African culture, which, for most of us is still a subject barely explored.

In June we continued our cultural work. During the last weekend of the month Santa Teresa held its annual “Portas Abertas”, an event with diverse cultural activities where the principal attractions are the ateliers that open their doors for visitation. Castelinho38 participated in the cultural itinerary by hosting an exposition by a neighbourhood artist cooperative, the live installation “Homunculus”, and an animated party with music from DJ Mary Byker.


“Homunculus”

In the period between June and July, Castelhino38 lent its support and partnership to FotoRio2007-The International Photography Festival of Rio de Janeiro. Castelhino38 hosted participating photographers of the event. Soon after FotoRio2007, the exposition “Invaded City: An Itinerant Project between Brazil and Spain,” which explores the conflicted and chaotic relationship between urban space and nature, and their manifestation as forces of organization and destruction, was hosted at Castelhino38.

DESTINATION AFRICA PART 2

We camped in a tent on the hill overlooking the Mara River and all the Masai Mara Reserve. Needless to say, we had a wonderful time and we’ve been able to see almost all the most famous inhabitants of this corner of Africa.



After the first bubbling days in Nairobi, Castelinho38 High Commission has decided to explore the Masai Mara Reserve. The area is considered, together with Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, the most amazing place on earth to see the wild African animals.




The most impressive thing here is the wide space and numbers of animals that freely come and go in between the safari cars. Our favorites are the giraffes and one afternoon during a walking safari around the camp we had the chance to meet a family of 6, but unfortunately our camera ran out of battery and we were unable to catch this unforgettable moment.

Elephants, rhinos, gazelles, zebras, antelopes, hippos and so many other species of mammals live there in harmony with the Masai Tribe, which dedicates most of its time to tending the cattle, cows and sheep outside the reserve. The Masai always use red dress and a wooden stick.




The road to get to Masai Mara is terrible and we had the chance to see a bit of the interior of Kenya, its people and its magnificent landscapes.

We are now heading toward Tanzania where we should spend the next weeks and from where we will write our next travel post.

Vernissage "da figura ou quase"

Dia 05 de janeiro tivemos a abertura da exposição ‘da figura ou quase’. Nem a forte chuva que caiu durante a noite espantou os convidados.
A mostra reúne o trabalho de dez artistas, incluindo duas gerações de pintores que sempre se mantiveram, de uma forma ou outra, no entorno da figuração.
Os modos de se aproximar da figura são, naturalmente, muito variados, há todo um distanciamento evidente de uma obra conceitual de Jorge Duarte e há a pintura como labuta, o progresso do dia a dia, como em Juliano Guilherme.
É um apanhado bastante interessante de obras de pessoas inseridas em diferentes tempos e espaços, mostrando pinturas feitas em diferentes estágios na carreira dos artistas, certamente algumas obras têm sua única oportunidade de exibição.

A exposição ‘da figura ou quase’ acontece até o dia 05 de fevereiro, das 17hs às 22hs.

Special visits

Here in Castellinho38 we are lucky to always have illustrious visitors grace our breezy retreat. In the past week a group of maritacas, a type of small parrot, dined in our garden and today we received a very special morning greeting from a gavião-carijó, a type of eagle. The majestic bird came so close to our terrace that we could hear the flapping of its wings. Unfortunately, the gavião-carijó didn’t have time for a chat or a piece of cake—just a quick rest before bustling off.



To know a little bit more about our special guests...
Physical Appearance: gavião-carijó measure about 36 cm and have long wings with open points. The coloration of the female and male bird is almost exactly the same. The male and female are generally distinguished by the size, the female being a bit larger.
Habitat: Gavião-carijós can survive with very little vegetation, and therefore can populate many different areas.
Distribution: Gavião-carijós live in parts of Mexico and Argentina and all of Brazil.
Behavior: They fly in open sky in wide circles, beating their large wings rapidly as they call attention to themselves with the loud call for which they are widely known.
Food: Large insects are the main entrée on the menu for the gavião-carijó. They also feast on lizards, small cobras, birds such as pardais, and even bats.
Natural Predators: The greatest threat to these majestic birds is human kind. Due to the destruction of their environment and the devastating effects of hunting, these birds may be in grave danger.
Preservation: The birds of prey play an indispensable role in natural selection. They help with the problem of overpopulation of smaller birds (as well as rats and pigeons in the urban centers). Gavião-carijós also maintain the size of their own population, eliminating the terminally ill of their species.
Final Note: The gavião-carijó is one of the species least affected by human interference-- they can even be found in urban areas sleeping in sky-scraper windows! However, we must remember that we are sharing this earth with many other beings. Plus, our coffee and cake certainly would be a little less interesting without the morning greeting of our illustrious visitors.

DESTINATION AFRICA PART 1

HAPPY 2008 to all!! While crazy summer is rocking in RIO and wintertime is freezing all of Europe, Castelinho38 is off discovering Africa. We started the New Year in Nairobi, Kenya, which was quite an adventure...if you happen to watch the World Head Lines News you may see two Italians wandering amidst the riots that engulfed the city after the most recent presidential election.



Luckily we are staying with our friends, Nilvo, a UN officer, and Ana, a Folha de SP journalist, so we are following all the UN safety instructions and the latest news reports. Don’t worry about our safety, we are doing fine! For now, as we wait out the riots, we have been stocking foods and gasoline. As the riots continue, the prices of goods are rising fast and certain items are difficult to find.



We have talked with a few locals, and they all seem very concerned about the situation. Nairobi is a hot-bed of conflict; election robbery, ethnic fighting, deteriorating economic and political situation. It was impossible to merely witness the mounting conflict—we had to help. We have been assisting Ana as she does her research and interviews about the city, which has certainly been an eye-opening experience.



This experience has greatly affected us. We will never forget the locals we have met, and the events we have witnessed. We are extremely grateful for our hosts, Ana and Nilvo, whose life work continues to be an inspiration. We are looking forward to the next step of our trip, but our thoughts and prayers remain with those who are left behind.

HANG GLIDING IN RIO

Castelinho38 is famous for its spectacular view of the city. But nothing beats the feeling of the wind in your hair, your feet dangling in the clouds and the morning sun breaking over Rio.


(Oliver, Hique, Simone)

Meet Oliver and Simone from Germany. Castelinho38 was lucky enough to have these two adventurers twice during their stay in Rio de Janeiro.

da figura ou quase

Para começar 2008 com o pé direito, o Castelinho38 abre suas portas para uma nova exposição. ‘Da figura ou quase’ reúne o trabalho de dez artistas - incluindo duas gerações de pintores -, que sempre se mantiveram, de uma forma ou outra, no entorno da figuração.

‘da figura ou quase’
De 05 de janeiro a 09 de fevereiro, das 17hs às 22hs.
Entrada gratuita.