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abril 28, 2008

Pinto enrugado

Outro dia ficaram muito espantados porque eu entendi o trocadilho embutido no nome de um neozelandes, Chris Peacock. Meio de molecagem (para inicitar curiosidade), meio de pudor, os mais intimos o chamam apenas de Crispy. Convenhamos, nao e complicado.

Escrito por Rafael | 04:14 AM | Comentários (0)

abril 24, 2008

Americanos vs franceses vs australianos

A correspondente do jornal New York Times em Paris deixou o cargo recentemente. Seu ultimo artigo foi um guia em oito licoes sobre como conviver com os franceses no pais deles. E uma visao tipicamente anglo-saxa. Como hoje eu convivo entre anglo-saxoes e franceses diariamente, deu vontade de comentar:

1: Look in the Rear-View Mirror To begin to understand France, you have to look back. The French are obsessed with history. Part of this feeling is a genuine affinity for the past, part a desire to cling to lost glory, part an insecurity that comes with a tepid economy and the struggle to integrate a growing Arab and African population. Marie-Antoinette regularly makes the covers of magazines. So does Napoleon Bonaparte. No anniversary is too minor to celebrate. In my time here, France has marked the 20th anniversary of France’s sinking of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, the 200th anniversary of the high school baccalaureate diploma, the 60th anniversary of the bikini and the 100th anniversary of the brassiere.

For the 100th anniversary of her birth in January, Simone de Beauvoir was celebrated with half a dozen biographies, a DVD series, a three-day scholarly symposium and a cover of the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur with a nude photo of her from the back.

Boa parte do interesse -- interesse, tara, preocupacao, tudo que for um pouquinho mais exagerado do que a media um ango-saxao rotulara imediatamente de obsession: Brazilians are obsessed with sex, French are obsessed with history etc. -- dos franceses no passado se deve a uma nostalgia de uma gloria perdida, particularmente em sucessivas derrotas militares no seculo XX. O resto e apenas a maneira pessoal deles de lidar com os meios de comunicacao de massa, a ideia que serao mais sofisticados se travestidos de um conteudo mais erudito. Na Inglaterra, e a vida da familia real; nos EUA ou na Australia, as chamadas celebridades.

2: An Interview Is Sometimes Not an Interview
Their love of history doesn’t mean the French always render it accurately. It has long been common practice for journalists in France to allow their interview subjects to edit their words. “Read and corrected,” the system is called.
I once took part in an interview with Jacques Chirac, when he was president, in which he said it would not be all that dangerous for Iran to have a nuclear weapon or two. That certainly was not French policy. So the official Élysée Palace transcript left out the line and replaced it with this: “I do not see what type of scenario could justify Iran’s recourse to an atomic bomb.”

The practice of doctoring the transcript has continued under President Nicolas Sarkozy. Last month, the president lost his temper when a bystander refused to shake his hand at the annual agricultural fair. (A polite translation of what he said would be, “Get lost, you stupid jerk!”) The incident, captured on video, was seen by millions on the Internet.

According to the daily Le Parisien the next day, Mr. Sarkozy later expressed regret in an interview, saying, “It would have been better if I had not responded to him.” But the paper’s editor soon confessed that the words of regret were “never uttered.” They had been edited into the transcript by the Élysée Palace.

Render it accurately e evidentemente um ato falho do que talvez seja a principal marca da mentalidade anglo-saxa, a objetividade. No seu rolo compressor, podem entrar a sutileza, a elegancia, o colorido da linguagem. Nada que se compare ao notorio barroco brasileiro, academico ou politico, onde nao se diz nada coerente no maximo de linhas possiveis. Numa entrevista a um jornal australiano, um australiano sempre respondera ao que e perguntado, mas isso nao significa que dira algo relevante.

3: The Customer Is Always Wrong It is hard for French merchants to admit they are wrong, and seemingly impossible for them to apologize. Instead, the trick is to somehow get the offended party to feel the mistake was his or her own. I’m convinced the practice was learned in the strict French educational system, in which teachers are allowed to tell pupils they are “zeros” in front of the entire class.

A doctor I know told me he once bought a coat at a small men’s boutique only to discover that it had a rip in the fabric. When he tried to return it, the shopkeeper gave him the address of a tailor who could repair it — for a large fee. They argued, and the doctor reminded the shopkeeper of the French saying, “The customer is king.”

“Sir,” the shopkeeper replied, “We no longer have a king in France.”

Olha a objetividade de novo ai, gente. Os anglo-saxoes tem sistemas de classificacao ainda mais especificos do que os franceses, a diferenca e que nao exibem os resultados tao abertamente: um frances racista sempre sera mais eloquente do que um ingles racista. A licao, entretanto, e mais destacada porque a autora e norte-americana, do pais onde o fregues sempre tem a razao.

4: Make Friends With a Good Butcher With food as important as it is here, one of the most important men in your life should be your butcher. Mine, Monsieur Yvon, is more than a cutter of meat. He is a playful spirit in a rather sober neighborhood — and the exception to the customer-is-always-wrong rule. In his tiny shop on the Rue de Varenne, between the Luxembourg Gardens and Les Invalides in the Seventh Arrondissement, Monsieur Yvon has donned a necklace of his homemade sausages to get a conversation going. At Christmas, he and his team of butchers put on elves’ hats with blinking lights. He offers passers-by free charcuterie and glasses of Beaujolais nouveau every fall. He is so deeply trusted that when avian flu struck France, his poultry sales went up, not down.

Monsieur Yvon has cooked my Thanksgiving turkey when it was too big for my oven and taught me how to make the perfect pot-au-feu. I have watched him lovingly choose just the right pair of center-cut lamb chops for an elderly client. Were they to be cooked today or tomorrow? Grilled or sautéed?

Even when he bears bad news, his explanations are delicious. Once I ordered a 16-pound turkey and got an 11-pound bird instead.

“It was the fault of the foxes,” he said gravely.

“The foxes?” I asked.

“Yes, the foxes.” It seemed that the electric fence surrounding the turkey pen had shorted out and the foxes had had a field day.

“They only ate the big turkeys,” he explained.

Se relacionar com alguem de quem voce e cliente e uma raridade entre anglo-saxoes, excecao feita ao barman do pub. Afinal, voce esta ali para consumir um produto ou servico e nao para iniciar uma amizade. Dai vem historias como aquela do Ivan Lessa comprar o mesmo jornal na mesma banca todo dia ha 14 anos e nao ter trocado mais do que duas palavras com o jornaleiro: Bom dia/obrigado. Os franceses sao capazes de quebrar esse distanciamento e isso surpreende sobremaneira a americana.

5: Kiss, but Be Careful Whom You HugThe French need no excuse to kiss. The first time I was kissed by a Frenchman was on July 20, 1969, the day a man landed on the moon. I was a student with a backpack, arriving at the Gare de Lyon. The newspaper seller kissed me on both cheeks because I was an American. The ritual double “bisou” — the two-cheek kiss — takes some getting used to.

There is nothing sexy about it, but it can be awkward, especially for my adolescent daughters when they are required to kiss strange men. Mr. Chirac never seemed to relish the formal, jerky air kisses. He is more of a hand-kisser. He knows how to cradle a woman’s hand in his, raise the hand to chest level, bend over to meet it halfway and savor its feel and scent.

Mr. Sarkozy is unpredictable. When he’s in a bad mood, he might offer a curt “Bonjour” and a cold handshake. With those he likes, he gets really close and hugs. They sometimes hug back, as did Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, during a visit this month to the Élysée. But the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has made it clear through her aides that she is not a hugger and needs her space.

A reacao exagerada, vitoriana, ao contato fisico intimo e tipicamente anglo-saxa. Relacionar um beijo imediatamente a algo sexy e tipicamente anglo-saxao, para quem nao passa na cabeca a ideia de se cumprimentar com dois beijinhos no rosto. Australianos chegam numa roda de amigos e, quando muito, dao um alo geral com a mao. Escoceses mal se despedem ao sair da roda.

6: Don’t Wear Jogging Clothes to Buy a Pound of Butter Rules govern even the smallest activities. I was making chocolate chip cookies one Saturday afternoon and ran out of butter. Dusted with flour, still in my morning jogging clothes, I dashed out to the convenience store up the street. The problem was that it is not just any street. It’s the Rue du Bac, one of the most chic places to see and be seen on Saturdays. I heard my name called and turned to face a senior Foreign Ministry official, dressed in pressed jeans and a soft-as-butter leather jacket, wearing an amused look, and carrying a small Nespresso shopping bag.

We went to a corner cafe for a drink. The Swedish ambassador and his wife stopped as they were riding by on their bikes. Both were in tailored tweed blazers, slim pants and loafers. Then Robert M. Kimmitt, the deputy treasury secretary, walked by.

He and my foreign ministry friend joked that my style didn’t match the setting. I made the point that it was my neighborhood and I could dress however I wanted. But as my French women friends told me afterward, jogging clothes (shoes included) are to be removed as soon as one’s exercise is over.

Essa junta-se a numero tres como a mais americana das dicas da lista. Afinal, se voce estava passando casualmente por um mercado depois de seu exercicio e lembrou que faltava manteiga em casa, qual o problema de ir vestindo a roupa de academia? Mas va explicar a um australiano que nao, existe uma norma de elegancia estabelecida que nao precisa ser seguida somente em situacoes formais, que no dia a dia voce pode se arrumar direito sem que haja uma necessidade profissional por tras e sobretudo que esse papo de se vestir de maneira esculhambada porque se e simples nao cola -- basta olhar para as gigantescas casas e brilhantes carros que esses mesmos australianos ou americanos possuem.

7: Feeling Sexy Is a State of Mind, or: Buy Good Lingerie In her close-fitting sweaters and pants and tailored leather jackets, Eliane Victor is both stylish and alluring. The retired author and journalist is in her late 80s.

For French women, being sexy has nothing to do with age and everything to do with attitude. Arielle Dombasle, the actress and cabaret singer married to the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, dared to expose her breasts on the cover of Paris Match and took off her clothes in a song-and-dance revue at Crazy Horse in Paris.

Some people feel she tries too hard. But give the lady some credit. She’s turning 50 and has a Barbie-doll body.A 600-page sociological study of sexuality in France released this month concluded that 9 out of 10 women over 50 are sexually active. The sexiest French women seem naturally skilled in the art of moving, smiling and flirting.

Chic French women prefer to peel and polish rather than paint their faces. Too much makeup, they say, makes a woman seem older, or worse, “vulgaire.” “The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion,” Yves Saint Laurent once said. “But cosmetics are easier to buy.”

French women spend close to 20 percent of their clothing budgets on lingerie. But you also have to know how to wear it. When the Galeries Lafayette department store inaugurated its 28,000-square-foot lingerie shop in 2003, it offered free half-hour lessons by professional striptease artists.

Nessa dica aqui o que sobressai e o choque entre a leveza mental da juventude e a consistencia da tradicao. A americana aposta na eficiencia dos metodos, nas cores da cosmetica; lhe escapa como a atitude possa se converter em algo sexy. Franceses cultuam, sao devotos; anglo-saxoes treinam, estudam e aprendem. O que e mais complicado de submeter a um metodo, tipo relacionamentos pessoais, fica ainda mais complicado. Aqui tambem vai um bocado do vitorianismo incubado, na maneira como ela lida com sex appeal.

8: When It Comes to Politesse, There Is No End to the Lessons Never use the word “toilette” when asking a host for directions to the powder room; try to avoid going there at all. Never say “Bon appétit” at the start of a meal. Don’t talk loudly. Never discuss your religion or your money at dinner. Eat hamburgers, pizza, foie gras and sorbet with a fork. Always say “bonjour” to the bus driver, and to fellow passengers on elevators. “Pas mal” doesn’t necessarily mean “Not bad.” It can mean “Great!”

Modos, assim como a atitude, sao algo que os franceses curtem cultivar e apreciam desenvolver apenas para exercitar a formalidade. Anglo-saxoes estabelecem protocolos formais a serem seguidos, mas uma vez seguidos, voce pode estar pelado que nao vai fazer diferenca -- porque a objetividade manda voce se concentrar no que, nao no como. De modo que faz diferenca se voce come mesmo que seja fast food com talheres -- mesmo em restaurantes, em jantares a noite, e comum ver australianos levando o pedaco de pizza cortada com a faca a boca com a mao.

Escrito por Rafael | 05:26 AM | Comentários (0)

abril 23, 2008

Irritando puristas (esse eu nao perco)

Frank Miller parece a fim de mexer com os fas mais puristas da criacao mais famosa de Will Eisner, apesar do elenco feminino gabaritado, com Scarlett Johannson e Eva Mendes (se bem que Sand Saref era para ser europeia, nao aquela cara de caribenha da Eva). Tem um trailer rolando.

Escrito por Rafael | 06:46 AM | Comentários (1)

abril 22, 2008

Fotos de Annie Leibovitz

Acho que ainda esta no ar a galeria de capas para a Vanity Fair fotografadas pela Annie Lebovitz nas ultimas decadas.

Escrito por Rafael | 06:05 AM | Comentários (0)

Sindrome de Paulo Francis

Michel Laub acertou na mosca ao escrever sobre Paulo Francis (grifos meus):

De certa maneira, a queixa de Francis era um lamento pessoal pela perda do próprio poder. (...) a influência que uma crítica publicada num grande jornal, anteriormente um dos três ou quatro julgamentos que o leitor iria conhecer (...) hoje se dilui entre centenas de fontes igualmente lidas e comentadas. Para quem construiu a carreira como intelectual público, o humanista que incorporava o filtro pelo qual passava tudo o que fosse relevante na cultura, ajudando a criar no público e em si mesmo a ilusão de que era possível apreender a súmula de algo tão grandioso e fragmentado, não devia ser confortável viver com a perspectiva dos novos tempos.

So acho que ele poderia ter generalizado: a queixa de Francis -- e de qualquer critico cultural, jornalista, intelectual publico e humanista e a mesma: nao se trata de uma revolta com a invasao da barbarie, da massificacao ou da padronizacao. Trata-se, nao de certa forma, mas nada alem de uma revolta pessoal contra a perda de poder nos tempos atuais. Ah, coitados.

Escrito por Rafael | 06:01 AM | Comentários (0)

abril 21, 2008

Duas alegrias

Duas alegrias na vida de um blogue: quando se publica todo dia, compra a polemica e atinge repercussao; quando fica semanas sem dizer e niguem reclama por estar parado.

Escrito por Rafael | 02:12 AM | Comentários (1)