Qualquer coisacomo identidade

Qualquer coisa como identidade

Qualquer coisa como identidade

Carolina PeresFaculdade de Belas Artes

Qualquer coisa como Identidade

Carolina Peres

2010

Livro editado no âmbito da disciplina Design II

sob orientação do Professor Rui Mendonça

capa: Carolina Peres

Faculdade de Belas Artes

Universidade do Porto

Fontes utilizadas: Frutiger e Gotham

ÍNDICE

9 Prefácio

HAPPY DESIGN

15 Nota de autor

17 Creative Futures Bursary Project: Kate Moross Creativeview

23 Kate Moross Faq+Info Blog Kate Moross

47 How good is good? Stefan Sagmaister

59 The designer as a producer Ellen Lupton

65 What is typography? Peter Bil’ak

69 Logos, flags and escutcheons Paul Rand

75 Back to show and tell Paula Scher

81 Think first, design later D.K. Holland

MUSIC IS MY JOY

91 Nota de autor

93 Bossa Nova e suas histórias Sóstenes Pernambuco Pires Barros

109 Maria Bethânia Caetano Veloso

113 O que Caetano fez de errado? Sílvio Osias

117 41 canções de Caetano Veloso

LOVE LIFE

175 Nota de autor

177 Lomografia

181 Lomography

185 How Phelps made swimming history Alice Park/Beijing

193 More questions with Michael Phelps Times

199 Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

203 Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, The Script Giuseppe Tornatore

241 Glossário de imagens

PREFÁCIO

Entenda-se:“Identidade = conjunto de caracteres próprios e exclusivos com os quais se podem diferenciar pessoas, animais, plantas e objectos inani-mados uns dos outros, quer diante do conjunto das diversidades, quer entre seus semelhantes. (...) podendo ainda haver uma identidade indi-vidual ou coletiva, falsa ou verdadeira, presumida ou ideal, perdida ou resgatada. Identidade ainda pode ser uma construção legal, e portanto traduzida em sinais e documentos, que acompanham o indivíduo.”

Henri Frederic Amiel disse acerca da vida :“Life is short and we never have enough time for gladdening the hearts of those who travel the way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind.”

A vida é, de facto, construída gradualmente por cada um, regulada por aquilo que fazemos, pelo que apreciamos ou não, onde crescemos e aprendemos. Acredito, verdadeiramente, que cada um tem um poder e uma es-sência que acaba por gerir e nos guiar face às situações com que nos deparamos todos os dias. A identidade é o resultado disso, do que acreditamos, das escolhas, as respostas e das procuras de cada um toma.

Tenho 21 anos e ambiciono muito. Penso que não vale de muito não vivermos apaixonados pelo que fazemos, por aqueles que nos acom-panham e nos ajudam, apaixonados pelo que ambicionamos e admi-ramos. Tenho muitas paixões na minha vida e tento fazer com que isso me impulsione até aos meus objectivos.

Neste momento, o design representa um papel fulcral na minha vida e torna-se, a cada dia que passa, mais preso a mim. Tenciono agarrar-me bem a ele e usufruir de tudo o que ele me possa oferecer e ajudar.

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HAPPY DESIGN

NOTA DE AUTOR

“Once you are on the way, you’ll be fine. Just spend your time develo-ping your ideas (...)” - Kate MorossNaqueles anos da adolescência em que temos que escolher a área científica ou, mais tarde, o curso que queremos seguir, apenas tive dúvidas no último. Arquitectura ou Design... Sinto agora que só as pressões me fizeram duvidar...é que quando se tem uma média que garanta a entrada em Arquitectura “há que aproveitar”!Acabei por seguir o que sentia, e eis que entrei no curso de Design de Comuni-cação. Desde então, e a cada dia que passa, o meu cérebro absorve informação que nunca pensei absorver. Tento fazer parte de um mundo que me encanta todos os dias, e cada vez mais, dando o que tenho e recolhendo o que os outros produzem. Esses ajudam-me a orientar, a ter opiniões, a ter visões do mundo e da arte, ajudam-me a criar a minha própria identidade e personalidade na vida e no design.

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Kate Moross is something of an inspiration. Although just 21 and cur-rently in her final year at Camberwell College of Arts, a visit to her website reveals her graphic and illustrative output is nothing short of prolific. On top of her personal and college work she has managed to create pieces for clients including Sony and Cadburys, provide illustra-tions for a host of magazines such as Vice, Dazed & Confused, Super Super and Fact, and still found time to produce innumerable flyers for myriad London clubnights. Oh, and she’s just art directed a book for an architecture firm in collaboration with Tom Merrell Design, started her own record label and is about to launch her own range of signature clothing at Top Shop.

So what makes Kate Moross tick? “Theory, popular science, economics, weird stuff like that,” comes the response. “Bike rides, tea, stationery, music,” she adds. “And Pantone, systems, architecture, engineering, physics – anything that I can graphic-design-nerd-out on really.”Moross’ work is wonderfully varied in style though invariably colour-ful and eye-catching, as she utilises hand-drawn elements, isometric and interlocking shapes and patterns, hand-drawn illustration and also vector graphic work. It is this combination of bright hues, painstaking design, hand-drawn letterforms and bold illustration that announces both her skill and confidence as an imagemaker. And also that she’s happy to do things the hard way, by hand, for the love of it which, in turn, gives her work appeal and plenty of charm.

CREATIVE FUTURES BURSARY PROJECT:

KATE MOROSSCREATIVEVIEW

www.creativeview.co.uk

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“With illustration work I normally develop my ideas on the spot,” she says. “I am very impulsive, I don’t like planning for hours. First I discuss what the client wants and I like to put things on paper straightaway. I normally sketch something out very quickly and then tackle it head-on and go straight in with the ink. It normally works out for the best this way. With my hand-drawn work, I focus on intense detail, layering, colour and line. I love finding new patterns, shapes and letterforms to experiment with,” she adds.

Her approach to design work is markedly different, she claims. “I can spend weeks researching a project before I even start to visualise it – there is a lot of thought behind every idea. I like to start with a concep-tual seed, and develop ideas from there. Gestalt Theory, for example was the start of all of my isometric patterns and shapes. The idea that ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ started the isometric building experiments that have flooded my work since.”

So perhaps it’s unsurprising to learn that Isomorph is the name of the the record label Moross has recently started – although it’s not just a record label. “Isomorph is a new company I’ve set up to act as an umbrella to any publishing or side project I choose to start,” she ex-plains. “I will also be publishing a couple of books in the new year. The record label part of Isomorph was constructed to create vinyl-only re-leases forexisting bands, as a chance for a collaboration between musi-cians and designers. I aim to work on a series of releases designing an aesthetic for each album/single.” The last issue of CR showcased the sleeve of the label’s first release, Populuxxe by Cutting Pink With Knives, which takes the form of a heavyweight green 10’’ record, housed in a gatefold sleeve adorned with origami-esque typography. “The vinyl itself is high in production value,” says Moross. “Where most labels would scrimp and save, Isomorph aims to indulge in all aspects of vinyl releases, creating collectors’ editions in small print numbers.”

This notion of creating collectable limited editions will also carry through to Moross’ forthcoming range of clothing for Top Shop. “I have designed a range of six garments which have all been hand-drawn and coloured using Letraset markers,” she reveals. “Each piece will be completely unique with only a few hundred of each being made.” Moross’ desire to produce her work in her own way, no matter what the cost in terms of expense or time, sets her apart from most of her peers and indeed her fellow students must surely struggle to compete with her remarkable productivity. “I am itching to finish university,”

“KATE MOROSS IS BIG IN THE GAME.”DON’T PANIC MAGAZINE

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admits Moross, “so I can focus on my work and start having some time off.” On the one hand some time off would seem well deserved – but at the same time it seems unlikely that Moross is going to slow down her output anytime soon.“I am going to continue with my record label and invest in a studio which I want to convert into a co-operative space where freelancers can work together in the same environment,” she tells us of her imme-diate post-college plans. “I am looking forward to working with some more big brands and publishing a few more books.”

“MOROSS’ WORK IS WONDERFULLY VARIED IN STYLE THOUGH INVARIABLY COLOURFUL AND EYE-CATCHING, AS SHE UTILISES HAND-DRAWN ELEMENTS, ISOMETRIC AND INTERLOCKING SHAPES AND PATTERNS, HAND-DRAWN ILLUSTRATION AND ALSO VECTOR GRAPHIC WORK.”

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“(...)“THEORY, POPULAR SCIENCE, ECONOMICS, WEIRD STUFF LIKE THAT,” (...)“BIKE RIDES, TEA, STATIONERY, MUSIC,”(...)“AND PANTONE, SYSTEMS, ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING, PHYSICS –

ANYTHING THAT I CAN GRAPHIC-DESIGN-NERD-OUT ON REALLY.”

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KATE MOROSS FAQ + INFO BLOGKATE MOROSS

www.katemoross.blogspot.com

BIOGRAPHY

Kate Moross09/04/1986

“I DO ALL SORTS”

London, UKNew York, USA

Represented by Breedwww.breedlondon.com

Graduated 1st Class Honors / CamberwellUniversity of the Arts London

Foundation Degree WimbledonUniversity of the Arts London

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FridayWHAT WAS THE WORST CONCERT YOU WENT TO?tst

WHAT WEBSITE DO YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME ON?www.ted.com

Wednesday

A LITTLE PIECE OF ADVICE

HELLO YOU,THANKS FOR VISITING MY FAQ.

If you are thinking about sending over some questions for your dissertations or school projects, please read the FAQ below, and edit your interview accordingly. You can also use all the useful links down the right hand side of this page to help you gather more information. There are press links, magazine and video interviews.

I get a lot of emails from people asking questions, and I strive to an-swer them personally, but you will make my response all the better if you can have a look through this website first.I’m no journalist, but I am pretty experienced in answering questions. So I have put together the following guidelines to help you when pre-paring an interview. Not just for me, but for anyone you are reaching out to, the better your prepare, the better your results.

. Tailor your questions to the person you are asking them to, research will help make your questions more intimate and provoke a better answer.

. Limit yourself to around 10, some which may require a short fire an-swer, and others that might ask for a little more commentary.

. Put your personality in your questions, people can tell if you care about their answer. Ask things you are interested in, don’t be generic or safe, it’s boring!

. Ultimately it should be a conversation, but just in a more formal for-mat. Ask questions that are in multiple parts, but be sure to separate them into individual sections so they don’t get overlooked.

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. Check Spelling & Grammar! It’s not the most important thing in the world, but it shows you care and that you have reread and considered what you are asking.

. Most of all, don’t be lazy. Whoever you are about to interview is about to spend their time helping you out with your research. So re-spect their time, and tailor your questions to suit them, don’t make them repeat themselves.

The above points are a little rough around the edges, but they are important. I would really appreciate anyone that emails me with ques-tions who has read through this. It shows you have what it takes to make it as a smart and professional person.

DOWN WITH LAZYNESS, here’s to being a geek.

ThursdayRECORD LABEL & MUSIC

AS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER, WHO DO YOU FEEL ABOUT DIGITAL MU-SIC? DO YOU FEEL YOUR DESIGNS CAN CARRY THE SAME WEIGHT ON CLO-THING AND APPAREL AS THEY WOULD ON VINYL?Digital music is amazing, i use it everyday. Designs are different what ever surface they are on. Vinyl has a very different semiotic than CD, it has a whole history behind it. Plus its fragile, expensive, and normally better looking. You can’t just put something on a record thats on a tee and vice versa you need to consider surface, print technique everythin in order to re appropriate your design to get it looking perfect.

ISOMORPHS SEEMS TO BE MAINLY MADE UP OF MORE TECHNO AND ELECTRONIC BANDS. DO YOU FIND THAT YOU GENERALLY JUST PREFER THIS GENRE OF MUSIC TO OTHERS, OR IS IT BE-CAUSE YOU FEEL IT MORE REFLECTS THE PARTIAL FOCUS OF THE LABEL ON DESIGN? (EMMA TWINE)Neither. All the bands are on the label because I loved them as people, enhanced by the fact they made amazing music, and they had passion and a vision. Those are the reasons. All the bands are totally different genres and from all over.

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YOU HAVE YOUR OWN RECORD LABEL, AND YOU SEEM TO FIND A LOT OF TIME TO KEEP UP WITH SOME AMAZING PERSONAL PROJECTS, BUT HOW DO YOU FIND A BALANCE?(KIRSTEN COWIE)There is no balance, life is work and work is life. I do not even attempt to seperate the two, sometimes I can’t remember whether my friends are clients or my clients are friends, its all blended together. My social life and my work like blend seamlessly, in fact, most of the time, I for-get I am even working.

WOULD YOU AGREE THAT THE WORK YOU DO FOR BANDS GIVES THEM A VISUAL IDENTITY, AND IS THIS SOMETHING YOU ARE CONSCIOUS OF DOING? IF SO… HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CREATING A VISUAL IDENTITY FOR SOMETHING? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT/ TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION? (SARAH DAWSON)Everything, most of it goes on in the back of my mind and it is very difficult to describe in words. I guess its inherent in designers to un-derstand and be able to carve an aesthetic for each project. I try not to be influenced too much by current trends, but I like to have a lot of dialogue with the band and establish what they want as well as what I think they need.

DOES IT BOTHER YOU THAT THE PRODUCTS YOU CREATE ARE (NECESSARILY!) EXPENSIVE LUXURIES? OR DO YOU LIKE THE IDEA THAT SOMEONE WHO BUYS AN ISOMORPH EP WILL HAVE DECIDED TO GO WITHOUT SOMETHING ELSE AS A CON-SEQUENCE, AND IT WILL THEREFORE MEAN MORE TO THEM? (SARAH DAWSON)Its not about it being “expensive” its about it having value - It costs money to make a beautiful object, and it takes time. The price of the record is dependent on many factors. Even though my label is very small I still have to fund the hire of equipment, assisting on tour bud-gets, transport, and then the record manufacture on top of that. The limited edition nature of the record increases the cost on a manufac-turing level as it requires more money to make less of a product. Also especially with the HR record we used specialist print finishes, for ex-ample we used a thicker card stock than usual, we printed the inside and outside of the sleeve, and then the laser foiling, coloured vinyl... i could go on, even the plastic slip cases the records come in had to be custom made to accommodate the larger stock and spine, but the sleeves were a must because we didn’t want all our beloved editions to be scuffed and crumpled. See we thought a lot about this object, and rightfully so!. I don’t like to look at the records as expensive items, they are lovingly created for the buyer, hand packed and numbered.

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I spend my time making it as beautiful as possible with the hope that everyone that owns it will enjoy it in its entirety, and really truly treasure it, not because it cost them more than another record but that some-one cared about making them an object that was special, not just off a production line of thousands that will be sold cheap wholesale and then churned out in record shops. The records I sell are all packed and posted by me, I think that people notice all of these things, as well as the time invested, and after all of these processes recognise that it is not expensive, but that it is of value - and that its price tag is worth paying.

I THINK THAT THE WORK YOU’VE DONE FOR HEARTS REVOLU-TION ENCOURAGES PROPER OBSESSIVE FANDOM – THE ‘I MUST OWN EVERY RELEASE ON EVERY FORMAT!’ MENTALITY. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THAT KIND OF FAN OF ANYTHING? (SARAH DAWSON)The heartsrevolution manifesto is inclusive and lovingly embraces any-one that wants to support and follow it. i think this is what draws peo-ple to it. I am a fan of lots of things I collect tons of weird shit - i have like every single released Radiohead track (probably not EVERY one but I would like to think so). I also collect sharpies and lots of other strange pens & stationary. I even have a rather large paper collection accumu-lating. I think owning music is becoming more important, It is scary to think that with one crash of a harddrive we could lose everything we love, all our photos memories and music. This is why people are going back to vinyl, so they can see it, it is physical, it stacks on a shelf, it has a weight and a value that cannot be overshadowed even by cheap (or free) readily available MP3’s. Also I think since music has become so easy to obtain people are back tracking, they desire the “rare” because it sets them apart. I like the idea that when this record is sold out, there will be no more, the person who owns number 12/500 will own it forever, in fact I even know the name of the owner of the number 12 record, because that is how my label works - every record has an owner and that owner isn’t just a number, they are someone who is part of the team that supported this project and believed in what I do.

“DIGITAL MUSIC IS AMAZING, I USE IT EVERYDAY. DESIGNS ARE DIFFERENT WHAT EVER SURFACE THEY ARE ON. ”

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I’VE READ A LOT ABOUT YOUR AIMS FOR ISOMORPH IN TERMS OF DESIGN AND PACKAGING, BUT DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICU-LAR VISION OF WHAT THE WORLD IS MISSING MUSICALLY AND WHAT YOU’D LIKE TO ADD TO IT? (SARAH DAWSON)I keep my musical ideas under wraps. I don’t feel it is my job to dictate where music is going to go. There is a reason I am designing records not singing on them. I feel like its my job to give people a platform to publish what they do and In that way I am making a statement on what I think is relevant and important in music. There will be lots more to come I assure you, but as for the future I’ll leave that to the likes of Dave Sitek, James Ford, and all the musical whizzes out there.

ARE THERE ANY LABELS WHOSE APPROACH/ DESIGN WORK RE-ALLY INFLUENCES YOU, OR ANYONE CURRENTLY DOING SIMI-LAR THINGS THAT YOU RESPECT? (SARAH DAWSON)Two of my close friends and clients run labels Merok and Young Turks. Both of them made me realise it was something I could do and they supported my journey and helped out at times where I needed it. There are lots of independents out there that are doing awesome stuff, whether it be a Grime label or a Noise label, anyone who is investing time in putting out stuff they love gets my vote. Design wise, I still work for the independents and the majors out there, and also act as a consultant to them on numerous creative projects. I don’t want to be a snob and only work on my own endeavors I think it is important to help guide the industry as a whole, I don’t think I will be able to make a revolution on my own!

BEING A SELF-CONFESSED VINYL ENTHUSIAST, WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT THAT PARTICULAR RECORD FOR-MAT? (EMMA TWINE)Sounds great, looks even better, and lasts forever.

LONDON

YOUR WORK SEEMS KIND OF SYNONYMOUS WITH LONDON AND YOU HAVE CREATED A REAL CREATIVE IDENTITY THERE, HOW IMPORTANT HAS IT BEEN TO YOU TO LIVE, LEARN AND WORK IN THE CAPITOL, AND WHAT’S NOW TEMPTING YOU TO SPREAD YOUR WINGS? (KIRSTEN COWIE)It is important that I can go out and meet people and represent myself in person. I don’t want London to get sick of me so I think I am going to try my hand at a few of the other capitals late 2008.

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UNIVERSITY

WHICH UNIVERSITY DID YOU GO TO AND WHAT DID YOU STUDY?Art Foundation: Wimbledon School of ArtBA Graphic Design: Camberwell, University of the Arts London FIRST CLASS HONORSI would recommend the graphics course at camberwell especially if you are moving to london for the first time - camberwell has a nice little community vibe and is more tight knit than the more spread out and higher subscribed courses. You must go have a look around the universities you apply to - that’s what I did, and camberwell was the best for me.Course wise - I think camberwell is excellent in some places, but lacks support in others. If you are willing to fill the gaps yourself its an excel-lent choice, you will have lots of freedom, and won’t be spoon fed.

FOR YOUNG WOMEN THINKING THAT THEY HAVE TO PICK JUST ONE CAREER OR JOB, ANY ADVICE? (SIMONE BAIRD)Try everything, eliminate everything you can as young as possible. Work experience will usually only tell you what you don’t want to do not what you do. Develop your skill set find what you are good at, learn about businesses and how they run

“INSPIRATION (...) FOR ME ITS THINGS LIKE, SWEET WRAPPERS, STREETWEAR, SHOP FRONTS, PACKAGING, SCIENCE, THEORY, TELEVISION, THE INTERNET, ALL THESE THINGS ARE INESCAPABLE, AND HAVE A SUBCONSCIOUS AFFECT ON EVERYTHING I DO.”

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INSPIRATION!!! (NEVER USE THIS WORD!!!)

I KNOW THAT AS ART STUDENTS WE ARE REALLY ENCOURAGED TO BE AWARE OF CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATION AS WELL AS RESEARCHING ART HISTORY IN GENERAL RELATING TO OUR WORK, I ALSO TRY AND DRAW FROM MUSIC, FILM AND MY FRIENDS WHEN COMING UP WITH NEW IDEAS. MUSIC IS OBVI-OUSLY A HUGE PART OF YOUR LIFE, BUT WHAT ELSE INSPIRES YOU? (KIRSTEN COWIE)Inspiration is a horrible word. Its not BIG enough to represent the thou-sands of visual messages and influences one is bombarded with every day... For me its things like, sweet wrappers, streetwear, shop fronts, packaging, science, theory, television, the internet, all these things are inescapable, and have a subconscious affect on everything I do.

WHICH PAST/PRESENT ILLUSTRATORS OR DESIGNERS HAVE IN-FLUENCED YOU?None really. I try not to take influence from illustrators or designers, more so from fine artists, scientists, writers and thinkers. Artists like Haring, Itten, Albers, LeWitt and thinkers like Pinker, Gladwell, Barthes, Songtag... etc

WHERE DO YOU TAKE INFLUENCE FROM? (WILLIAM RICKETTS)For me its things like, sweet wrappers, streetwear, shop fronts, packag-ing, science, theory, television, the internet, all these things are ines-capable, and have a subconscious affect on everything I do.

WHICH PAST/PRESENT ILLUSTRATORS OR DESIGNERS HAVE IN-FLUENCED YOU?None really. I try not to take influence from illustrators or designers, more so from fine artists, scientists, writers and thinkers.

Artists like Haring, Itten, Albers, LeWitt and thinkers like Pinker,

PHOTOGRAPHYHOW DID YOU GET INTO PHOTOGRAPHY? (JACK WATTS)I was really ill when I was 15 for about a year, so my dad bought me an old manual camera as a get well present. It all started from there. It was just an old Pentax, but I fell in love with it, it was my first ever SLR.

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WHICH MASTERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY DO YOU ADMIRE? (JACK WATTS)I’m not really a photography master admirer. I just like images. I think it has a lot to do in what is in front of the camera rather than the model or skill of the photographer. Ultimately my quest is to find beautiful photographs, not amazing photographers.

THE INTERNET

YOU’VE GOT YOUR OWN WEBSITE, MYSPACE PAGE AND DAZED AND CONFUSED PROFILE, HOW HAVE YOU TACKLED COMPIL-ING A BODY OF WORK AS A PORTFOLIO, HOW USEFUL HAVE YOU FOUND ONLINE RESOURCES IN SELF PUBLICATION AND WHAT OTHER WAYS DO YOU USE TO GET INVOLVED WITH NEW PROJECTS AND COMMISSIONS? (KIRSTEN COWIE)Online resources are very important. In fact essential. More so 2 years ago I think it was more impressive to have a website, and work show-cased online, nowadays its more common, and there for harder to push your work online. A lot of my work has simply come from meet-ing people, and my good friends and clients recommendations.

WORK SPACE / STUDIO

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN YOUR WORK-PLACE? (EHAAMKE)My computer, the internet and drawing space.

CAN YOU WORK EVERYWHERE OR DO YOU DEPEND ON YOUR WORKPLACE/STUDIO? (EHAAMKE)I moved to america for 3 months this summer, and had to learn to adjust, i’m pretty good at being mobile.HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR WORKPLACE/STUDIO FOR YOU? (EHAAMKE)Very important to have space to work, and a load of your things around you to make you feel comfortable, and to stimulate you.

HOW DO YOU MAKE THE PLACE INSPIRING? (EHAAMKE)Posters, objects, technology, equipment that is fun to use.

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TOOLS + TECHNIQUES

DO YOU THINK YOU WORK BETTER DURING THE DAY OR NIGHT? (LANA HUGHES)I used to work better in the night, but I switched my body clock around so now I work better in the day - when everyone I work for is awake, and therefor much more practical.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT YOU USE? (LANA HUGHES)Pens - glorious pens, all sizes and shapes and colours.

A LOT OF YOUR WORK IS LARGELY GEOMETRIC AND CARTOON-STYLE. HAVE YOU OR WOULD YOU EVER MOVE TOWARDS RE-ALISM IN YOUR WORK? (EMMA TWINE)No way. I am rubbish at that. I did that when I was at school, I was ok at drawing still lives and people. I was always told that that was how you had to draw. “Draw what you see, not what you know”. Now I just like to spill my brain out onto the page.

WHAT NEW SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO LEARN TO BE ABLE TO FLY SOLO? (SIMONE BAIRD)Determination, organisation, brazen confidence, and a good work ethic.

WHAT MARKERS DO YOU FIND ARE THE BEST FOR DRAWING/ILLUSTRATING? (ZARA ARSHAD)I like using thick felt nibs like sharpies and sign pens as i feel they render better digitally, and I also press quite hard when I draw so ballpoints or drawing fiber nibbed pens just go blunt or bent. For murals I use Posca Markers, made by UNI they are Paint Pens, and are totally amazing, though you are limited by the number of colours and thicknesses.

I’VE SEEN SOME PHOTOS WHERE YOU’VE DRAWN STRAIGHT ONTO THINGS LIKE WINDOWS, CAPS ETC. AND WAS WONDER-ING HOW YOU GET YOUR LINES SO STRAIGHT? DO YOU USE SOME SORT OF GRID OR DOES IT JUST...COME NATURAL AFTER SO MUCH EXPERIENCE? (ZARA ARSHAD)No grids, or rules, just lots of practice, and a steady hand!

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I WAS QUITE INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT HOW YOU COM-PUTERISED YOUR HAND-DRAWN WORKS (IF YOU DO). DO YOU DRAW BY HAND, SCAN AND THEN RE-CREATE YOUR DRAWING IN ILLUSTRATOR? (ZARA ARSHAD)I draw and then scan or photograph high res (depending on the size or if a have a scanner to hand. I retrace in illustrator or use live trace, or if the image is clean I will work with it directly in photoshop.

PENCIL VS MOUSE: ARE YOU A HANDS ON GIRL OR DO U YOU FIND YOURSELFITCHING FOR THE MAC? (WILLIAM RICKETTS)I love both, they need each other, and it makes my job more interesting bouncing between the two.

I AM INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT HOW DIFFERENT CREATIVE PEOPLE GO ABOUT MAKING THEIR WORK, FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN WORKING ON A NEW PROJ-ECT OR BRIEF? (KIRSTEN COWIE)First thing I do its get started. After talking to the client, probing them with questions I just like to get something down on paper or on screen.

WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER MOVING YOUR WORK INTO 3D?Yes I have for a few projects now, I love working with objects, and building things. I think its just a question of getting more projects that me allow me to experiment more with product design and making 3D elements.

A LOT OF YOUR WORK IS LARGELY GEOMETRIC AND CARTOON-STYLE. HAVE YOU OR WOULD YOU EVER MOVE TOWARDS RE-ALISM IN YOUR WORK?No way. I am rubbish at that. I did that when I was at school, I was ok at drawing still lives and people. I was always told that that was how you had to draw. “Draw what you see, not what you know”. Now I just like to spill my brain out onto the page.

FEAR + ASKING FOR HELP

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF WORKING OUTSIDE A TRADITIONAL COMPANY STRUCTURE? (SIMONE BAIRD)Yes, as there is no guarantee, no support, or back up. Nobody to hold your hand or tell you what to do. I think if you have the confidence to do things by yourself and have methods of getting help when you need it you will be fine. I found when I started off I did ask questions

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and help from my colleagues and friends who were also in the industry. I still do it today, If I am entering a new market or working on a chal-lenging project, I am never too proud to call and ask advice. I do a lot of research through out my working week, which includes just chat-ting and meeting up with like minded people or professionals to dis-cover more about the area I am working in. Most of all it is important to be professional and represent yourself, as if you were representing a company.

WHAT ARE THE WORST MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE WHEN AP-PROACHING OTHER PEOPLE FOR HELP? (SIMONE BAIRD)Not actually asking specific questions. Just overloading people with a general need for advice doesn’t really allow for quick or efficient answers or support. Specific questions are much easier and more ben-eficial to learn from.

HOW DO YOU STAY POSITIVE? (DANIELLE SELF)Keep focused, ultimately every industry is competitive, don’t worry about the people worrying about not getting jobs, let them worry - you just stay focused and work as hard as you can to build your portfo-lio whilst you are still at school. People who talk about how hard it is, tend not to bother trying. Once you are on the way, you’ll be fine. Just spend your time developing your ideas, whether thats finding good typefaces to work with, building your own type faces, experimenting with colour palettes, or drawing. All those things will help you suc-ceed. Most of all stay confident in what you do, and get stuck in.

COMMERCIAL WORK

YOU SEEM TO HAVE JUST DIVED IN AT THE DEEP END CREAT-ING FLYERS AND GETTING YOUR WORK KNOWN IN LONDON, BUT HOW HAVE YOU EVOLVED FROM THESE COMMISSIONS TO WORKING WITH THE LIKES OF TOP SHOP, AND HOW DIFFERENT DO FIND WORKING FOR SMALLER COMPARED TO BIGGER OR-GANISATIONS? (KIRSTEN COWIE)Big and small are surprisingly similar, its not really the size of the client that creates differences, its more their attitude that affects the way a project develops.

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STARTING OUT

AFTER STUDYING A BA GRAPHIC DESIGN DEGREE AT CAMBER-WELL, WHAT DID YOU DO NEXT? HOW DID YOU GET INTO IN-DUSTRY? (CLAIRE COTTAM )I had been freelancing throughout my time at Camberwell so I just continued doing that. Only this time I had more time to work on proj-ects and actively seek and create the projects I wanted to work on.

SHOULD I DO A FREELANCE JOB FOR A LOW PRICE BECAUSE I AM A BEGINNER IN FREELANCING? (ARCHANA PAT)Yes definitely. I worked ( and I still work for free = if its for a good cause), then I slowly built my budgets up. Now they are at a much higher rate, as its proportional to my (little) time, and the demand for my work.

DO YOU THINK IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO SPECIFY WHAT TYPE OF WORK YOU ARE PREPARED TO DO, OR SHOULD YOU LEAVE IT BROAD? (MATTHEW MURPHY)Specify what you can do, if that is broad then thats awesome. If not, it doesn’t matter. Never say you can do something you aren’t confident you can do.

WHEN DO YOU REALISE THIS WAS WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO FULL-TIME? (RORY MACKIE)Since i was about 15. All this work started to snowball, and now it really is my career! It all started with just a few jobs, for friends bands and record labels, who let me work for free. i guess i owe it all to them. the most important thing is that even 3 years on, i have kept those ties, i still work with caius, from young turks, as well all matty from white heat to mention a few.

“PEOPLE WHO TALK ABOUT HOW HARD IT IS, TEND NOT TO BOTHER TRYING.ONCE YOU ARE ON THE WAY, YOU’LL BE FINE. JUST SPEND YOUR TIME DEVELOPING YOUR IDEAS,(...)”

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AFTER STUDYING A BA GRAPHIC DESIGN DEGREE AT CAMBER-WELL, WHAT DID YOU DO NEXT? HOW DID YOU GET INTO IN-DUSTRY? (CHARLOTTE COTTAM)I had been freelancing throughout my time at Camberwell so I just continued doing that. Only this time I had more time to work on proj-ects and actively seek and create the projects I wanted to work on.

FREELANCING

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BEING A FREELANCE ARTIST? (HANNAH WHITMORE)ADVANTAGES: MONEY, EXCITEMENT, TRAVEL, FLEXIBLE TIME, BEING YOUR OWN BOSSDisadvantages: Money, Stress, Mania, Pace, Time.

COULD YOU LIST A FEW BENEFITS OF FREELANCING & WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO START? (ARCHANA PAT)Money, Excitement, Travel, Flexible time, being your own boss It was an accident really, i just knew i didnt want to do a desk job.

DO CLIENTS ALWAYS EXPECT A LOT FROM A FREELANCER? (ARCHANA PAT)Yes - you are expected to manage your time, be equipped with all the technology you need, to be punctual, to reply to all emails and answer the phone, make it to meetings no matter where / when,

WHAT ARE THE FIRST THINGS YOU NEED TO CONSIDER AND RESEARCH BEFORE MAKING THE DECISION TO GO FREELANCE? (LUKE MCNANEY)Do you have the determination? Do you love what you do enough to wake up every morning and work for yourself? Can you deal with hav-ing an unreliable income? Work out your monthly ins and outs on your business and personal accounts, know what you have to earn every month, and work hard to double it.

HOW DO YOU ESTABLISH A PRICE FOR A JOB? (ARCHANA PAT)Good question. I usually ask the client to let me know their budget, then i tell them if its too low or too high. You have to be very hon-est. I don’t have an agent, normally a freelancer would let their agent handle money agreements.

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Do you think it is a risky career move or do you think there are more benefits as a freelancer? (Matthew Murphy)It is definitely a risk, I would say you should only freelance if you have work whilst you are at school and you feel confident that it will con-tinue to flow in. If not, work for a company part or full time, and go out and try to get freelance work at the same time, then you can choose either way.

HOW DO YOU WORK OUT HOW MUCH TO CHARGE CLIENTS? SHOULD IT DEPEND ON THE TYPE OF CLIENT/COMPANY? (MATTHEW MURPHY)Depends on a million factors. My best advice would be to ask someone with experience for advice, as well as asking the client for their budget.

AFTER SETTING YOUR HOURLY RATE, WHAT OTHER FACTORS DO YOU CONSIDER WHEN PRICING UP THE BILL FOR A CLIENT? (LUKE MCNANEY)Labour, materials, running costs of your office, all the things that facili-tate you to create work need to be considered. Even the place where you work, part of your home or your office need to be factored in.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN FACTORS YOU TAKE INTO CONSIDER-ATION WHAT ESTABLISHING A PRICE FOR CLIENTS? (HANNAH WHITMORE)Exposure, Time it will take to do the project, skill it will take to do the project and the image of the brand.

HAVING JUST STARTED OUT AS A FREELANCE DESIGNER, WHAT WOULD BE THE FIRST STEP TO FINDING YOUR FIRST CUSTOM-ERS AND BUILDING UP A CLIENT BASE, WOULD YOU SUGGEST HIRING AN AGENT? (LUKE MCNANEY)You don’t really “hire” agents, they come to you, its a very complicated agent. If you can find representation purely based on your talent, and not necessarily experience, yes that is great. Either way, you need to actively seek work, in every place you can imagine.

IF YOU GIVE A CLIENT A QUOTE FOR A CERTAIN JOB, HOW WOULD YOU DEAL WITH UNFORESEEN EXPENSES? (LUKE MCNANEY)You need to work up a basic contract, or even simple what is covered under the costs, unforeseen expenses need to be extra.

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I recommend taking 50% upfront, and 50% on delivery, that way if you think they are being un realistic in extra work you will provide you can add it in. Some designers charge a daily / hourly rate on top for unforeseen circumstance. Mostly you will just end up working extra hard on certain things for the same money. It all depends on your cli-ent, your patience, and ability to communicate, compromise and ad-just your work to suit them.

THE FINANCIAL AND LEGAL SIDE ARE BY THE FAR THE MOST UNNERVING ASPECTS OF GOING FREELANCE TO ME, ONE THING I AM MOST CURIOUS ABOUT IS CONTRACTS. WHAT IS THE BASIC PROCESS TO CREATING A CONTRACT AND WHAT OTHER SITUA-TIONS WOULD THEY BE REQUIRED FOR, APART FROM MAKING SURE THAT YOU WILL GET PAYED FOR YOUR WORK?I didn’t ever have contracts when I was working, this was daunting for me too. There are certain places you can download standard contracts from and tailor them, but they can be a little complicated. I learned the hard way, but 90% of the time the client was totally trustworthy. I would find another source who can help you with contracts, and refin-ing the details of each job.

Don’t forget to register as self employed, and get an accountant. They can explain all the ins and outs of the financial side to you and they should cost in the region of 200-300 pounds a year to file your Tax Return.

OPINIONS ON FREE PITCHING?Free pitching is a hard one. Even I still do it, as long as I am totally in love with the project, and the rewards are enough. Its a great way to test how brave you are, as you have nothing left to lose.

ILLUSTRATION VS GRAPHIC DESIGN VS ART

IS THERE ANY REASON WHY YOU DECIDED TO DO BOTH GRAPH-IC DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION? (RACHEAL STAYMAN)I love both of them, they are in some ways seamless, and in other way completely different. There is certainly more design involved with illustration than there is illustration in design. I enjoy playing the two off each other, and it creates interesting and dynamic projects. It also means there is a range and variation in the type of work I do. One day i could be designing a book, and the next day drawing on the ceiling somewhere.

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“IN AN AGE OF THE FACELESS DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, IT’S HUGELY EXCITING TO SEE SUCH A YOUNG TALENT EMBRACING THE PHYSICAL FORMAT WITH SUCH VISION AND STYLE.”FACT MAGAZINE

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HOW DISTINCT DO YOU THINK ART AND DESIGN ARE AS DISCI-PLINES – HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE WHAT MAKES YOUR WORK ONE OR THE OTHER? HOW WOULD YOU PLACE WHAT YOU DO? (SARAH DAWSON)Hm... These boundaries are blurred more and more these days, so this is a hard one to answer. Art and Design are interchangable. I would call myself and artist/designer/illustrator its mostly just pigeon holing, it doesn’t matter where people put you, you are still doing the same thing.

WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF FOR MOST A GRAPHIC DESIGNER?Yes for most, but I am an Art Director too, and a illustrate as well.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

IN RECENT TIMES IT HAS BECOME APPARENT THAT THE CRE-ATIVE COMMUNITIES HAVE BECOME MORE AWARE OF THE ETHICAL ISSUES OF THEIR WORK, WOULD YOU SAY THE PRIORI-TIES HAVE CHANGED? (JANE CASSELLS)I don’t think that this awareness is exclusive to the creative communi-ties, ethical issues seem to be everywhere at the moment!

DO THE VIEWPOINTS OF OLDER DESIGNERS INFLUENCE YOU? FOR EXAMPLE MILTON GLASER CLAIMED THAT “GOOD DESIGN IS GOOD CITIZENSHIP.” DO YOU AGREE? (JANE CASSELLS)Older designers are my favorites! When I first started reading about de-sign it was the masters that I followed. People like Alan Fletcher, drove me to study design. Most of all my biggest influences were creative people, who had conceptual ideas. Artists like, Sophie Calle, Rachel Whiteread, Architects like Daniel Libeskind, theorists like Josef Albers, and Johannes Itten.

“OLDER DESIGNERS ARE MY FAVORITES! (...) MOST OF ALL MY BIGGEST INFLUENCES WERE CREATIVE PEOPLE, WHO HAD CONCEPTUAL IDEAS.”

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Work that I enjoyed was work that had both a conceptual spine, and a considered aesthetic that represented its back story, and also lead the user down certain cerebral path. I loved the idea that design was communication, and the immense power that it posses. I forget this sometimes, and thankfully you have reminded me to keep this idea close in my mind whilst I get through my working day. It is easy to get caught up and forget. I have always said, that design is Science, and sometimes I think it is even more than that.

THE FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO ENCOURAGED GRAPHIC DESIGNERS TO PUT THERE SKILLS TO USES OTHER THAN CON-SUMER PRODUCTS, DO YOU THINK IT WAS EVER AND VIABLE WAY TO LIVE AVOIDING CORPORATE WORK? (JANE CASSELLS)I read through the manifesto recently, and obviously like most commer-cially employed designers, one gets rather defensive. Part of me under-stands the need for such and article, but part of me is also adamant that there is a need for commercial design, even if it is for dog biscuits or hair gel. I mean not that I buy either, but if i did have a puppy or a quaff hair-do (and as a design snob) I like the advertising around me to be smart and good looking.

I think that design should be inclusive not exclusive. But most of all, I am a consumer, and Graphic Designers seem to be some of the biggest gadget freaks, online shoppers and the rest. Like you mentioned, we all have to eat. Commercial work pays my salary, and helps me fund my record label, and the many interns, assistants, and contractors I employ. In my work I always hope to maintain an integrity and sensitiv-ity in the consumer brands that I work with and for. Making sure the projects are progressive, and in keeping with my ethos.

AS A PRACTISING DESIGNER DO YOU FEEL IT IS APPROPRIATE TO IMPOSE YOUR OWN AGENDA (POLITICAL/ETHICAL OR OTH-ERWISE) INTO EACH PROJECT, OR PURELY FOCUS OF THE NEEDS OF THE CLIENT? (JANE CASSELLS)I don’t think you should impose your ideas onto a project but instead make sure you chose work that you believe in. For example I have been asked to do numerous campaigns for alcoholic beverage companies, but each one I have turned down. Purely based on the fact that I don’t drink, and I don’t believe that alcohol should be advertised commercially.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE PROFESSIONAL ATTRI-BUTES OF A GRAPHIC DESIGNER? (JANE CASSELLS)Hard working, curious, and energetic.

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PROFESSION / WORK ETHIC

DOES YOUR PASSION PAY THE RENT?For sure it does, at home and at the office!

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU FIND REALLY DIFFICULT ABOUT YOUR PROFESSION? (RACHEAL STAYMAN)Sitting at a desk, its destroying my spine. Self employment means you have to pay a lot of tax. I hate tax. Giving your hard earned money to the government is never going to be easy. I’m not looking forward to April this year.

FIRSTLY, DO YOU EVER STOP? YOUR CATALOGUE OF WORK AND CLIENTS SO FAR IS COMPLETELY INTIMIDATING, BUT WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST EXCITING PROJECT YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH IN THE LAST THREE YEARS? (KIRSTEN COWIE)Hmm - most exciting was Cadburys, compared to the work I had had before this was a giant leap. It was a dream to do billboards, I think a couple weeks before I had said to my friend - “I really want to do a bill-board” she was like, “Yeah right! Like thats going to happen” - but it did!

WOULD YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE A WORKAHOLIC? (RORY MACKIE)No, but the first sign is denial right?i am definately a workaholic. I am addicted to what i do. But isnt that the sign of a great job?

PROCESS

WHAT’S YOUR ACTUAL WORKING PROCESS? (RORY MACKIE)Sit down at my desk - get a bit of paper, sketch out a basic framework, pencil in some type or whatever it is i am drawing, and then go at it straight away with my pens, there is no point of being scared of it. never start again if something goes wrong, i like to work something until it is finished, even if that process i quite pain staking.i think you get a better result than starting afresh. I like to work little areas to per-fection, and then spend time joining them together so that the whole thing looks obsessively detailed.

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HOW MUCH OF A ROLE DOES MUSIC PLAY IN YOUR WORK, DOES IT INSPIRE YOU DIRECTLY WHEN YOU SIT DOWN TO DO A DRAWING? (RORY MACKIE)Music is my work partner. freelancing is a very lonely occupation, so music keeps me up, working, and focused. plus its the whole reason i got into this line of work so i owe it the biggest debt.

DO YOU GO THROUGH THE SAME WORKING PROCESS WITH EACH CLIENT OR DOES IT DIFFER FROM JOB TO JOB? (HANNAH WHITMORE)Usually its the same, think, talk, write, draw.

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HOW GOOD IS GOOD?STEFAN SGMEISTER

Presented at the AIGA National Conference in Washington on March 23, 2002, reprinted in I.D. Magazine April/May 2002

In September design felt impotent and frivolous. There is nothing in-herent in our profession that forces us to support worthy causes, to promote good things, to avoid visual pollution. There might be such a responsibility in us as people. In August, when thinking about my reasons for being alive, for getting out of bed in the morning, I would have written the following down.

1. Strive for happiness2. Don’t hurt anybody3. Help, others achieve the same

Now I would change that priority:

1. Help others2. Don’t hurt anybody3. Strive for happiness

My studio was engaged in cool projects, things designers like to do, like designing a cover for David Byrne

david byrne: Your Action World

We had a good time designing them, and since the products and events these pieces promoted were fine, I don’t think we hurt anybody who bought them.

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One of the many things I learned in my year without clients, a year I had put aside for experiments only, was that I’d like a part of my studio to move from creating cool things to significant things.

The 80s in graphic design were dominated by questions about the layout, by life style magazines, with Neville Brody’s Face seen as the big event. The 90s were dominated by questions about typography, read-ability, layering, with David Carson emerging as the dominant figure.

With prominent figures like Peter Saville recently talking about the cri-sis of the unnecessary and lamenting about the fact that our contem-porary culture is monthly, there might now finally be room for content, for questions about what we do and for whom we are doing it. The incredible impact the First Things First manifesto had on my profession would certainly point in that direction.

The first sentence on page 1 of Victor Papanek’s “Design for the Real World” reads: “There are professions more harmful than industrial de-sign, but only very few of them. And possibly only one profession is phonier: Advertising design. In persuading people to buy things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, in order to impress others that don’t care, it is probably the phoniest field in existence today.”

I do know that bad design can harm our lives. From the problems this little piece of bad typography caused in Florida to unnecessary junk mail and overproduced packaging, bad design makes the world a more difficult place to live in.

Florida BallotAt the same time, strong design for bad causes or products can hurt us even more.

GOOD DESIGN + BAD CAUSE = BADJust consider this age old and powerful symbol symbol and its transfor-mation into a very successful identity program by the Nazis.

Context is all-important: The Christian cross had one meaning in 16th century Europe and another one in 20th century India.

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BAD DESIGN + GOOD CAUSE = GOOD?On the other hand, bad design for a good cause can still be a good thing. We designed the logo for The Concert for New York, a huge charity event for the fire and policeman in Madison Square Garden, involving among others Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, The Who.

From a design point of view, the statue of liberty playing a guitar is a trite cliché. I am not suggesting that the logo had much to do with the over $ 20 million raised for the Robin Hood Foundation, well, actually, a tiny portion was raised through the logo in the from of merchandize sales.

HOW TO BE GOOD?Well, does help by definition have to be selfless? Am I allowed to get something out of myself? If I do help, am I permitted to have fun while doing so?

I read an interview with an art director in England discussing his award winning campaign ad campaign for an association for the blind, fea-turing a striking image of a guide dog with human eyes stripped in.He mentioned that he knew that a picture of a cute puppy would have raised more donations for the association, but was more interested in winning awards. He had no problems with this attitude.

When GE gives 10 million to the WTC victim families, is it ok for them to look good for doing so?

Or, a more extreme case: Is it ok for Philip Morris to go and give 60 mil-lion to help out various charities and then spend another 108 million promoting this good deed in magazine ads?

If you are homeless and you just got a hot meal from St. Johns in Brooklyn, one of the organizations the money went to, you don’t re-ally give a shit if the people who gave it to you tout their own horn afterwards.Even though it really is a ridiculous case, isn’t it still preferable to blow-ing the entire 168 million on a regular ad budget?

And: Why are so many celebrities involved in charities?Five years ago, my feeling was they just wanted to promote their careers.

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Now I am somewhat less cynical. It is conceivable that many simply came to realize the pursuit of money/fame/success does not hold the contentment it promised and are on the lookout for more significance.

Poor Sting practically ruined his career with all his do gooding, trans-forming himself from the cool leader of the Police to just another sappy rain forest bard

Where do the critics come in? If I make fun of Sting, do I keep other celebrities from following his lead and therefore somehow contribute to the destruction of the rainforest? If I do criticize Sting, do I have to have a better idea to help the world?

When philosopher Edward DeBono talks about values, he puts them into four equally important sections:

ME-VALUES: EGO AND PLEASUREMATES-VALUES: BELONGING TO A GROUP, NOT LETTING IT DOWNMORAL-VALUES: RELIGIOUS VALUES, GENERAL LAW, GENERAL VALUES OF A PARTICULAR CULTUREMANKIND-VALUES: HUMAN RIGHTS, ECOLOGY

I often make the mistake of concentrating on just a couple of these val-ues in my life. We all have heard of the philanthropist who gave away millions to charity and was a genuine asshole to all his friends. Or the guy who is totally devoted to his family and friends but hates himself, drives a Suburban and works for a Nuclear Missile Plant.Or Mr. Bin Laden himself: I am sure he is totally devoted to his religious values as well as to the values of his own culture, but does not really care about human rights much.

For a full life I would have to be involved in all four.I do think there is a role for everyone. It does not really matter if I am the Mayor of New York, or if I design the tourist brochures for New York or if I sweep the streets in New York. There is always room to be nice to a co-worker, to send a sweet letter to Mom, to love Anni.

Of course there are different degrees of separation. The rescue worker down at Ground Zero is directly involved, when I design a pin to raise money to help the rescue worker, I’m a couple of degrees further re-moved. But I might just function twice as effective as a designer than I would as a rescue worker.

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Well, while pondering those questions half a year ago, I got invited to participate in a media design exhibition in Vienna, Austria. One of the perks that came with the exhibit was a free, full-page ad in Austria’s best newspaper, space I was free to fill with whatever I liked.It’s an idea for a packaging that might be applied in zones of large catastrophes, earthquakes and such. At the time I was naively think-ing of far away locations, India or Africa, not for a second conceiving that my hometown New York itself might be turned into the largest catastrophe zone.It is basically a large, hollow Lego like block containing basic foods like milk powder, water, dried fish, rice. After the food has been consumed, the empty packaging can be filled with sand or dirt and used as an interlocking brick to build a shelter.In the ad I explained the idea and asked other designers, packaging manufacturers and aid organizations to contribute.Responses came into my laptop immediately. Many from students who just wanted to help, some from Austrian packaging companies inter-ested in participating and many from designers and architects offering ideas.Also, it was an opportunity to feel and look good myself: The caring designer.

Among all the positive responses was also a violently negative one;- the writer stating that this is the absolute worst idea he ever saw in this context, that it’s a case of designing poverty, just plain ignorant and stupid.I got really nervous. I am just not used to having my work hated that much. Maybe I should have stuck to CD covers.The e-mail did prompt me to get quickly in contact with aid organiza-tions and I had subsequently a discussion with the Director of Emer-gency Preparedness at CARE, the largest of them all.It turns out that in emergency cases, Care tends to buy food whenever possible locally in bulk: That way they don’t have to package, there is less garbage, they avoid shipping problems and the food will be com-patible with local tastes.

And similar thinking applies for shelter: It’s to everybody’s advantage to use as much local building material as possible. Care just supplies some additional resource materials like rolls of plastic or corrugated metal sheets and utilizes the ingenuity of the population. This results in sturdier, better-built shelter.It turns out, my e-mail writer was right:

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This is a stupid idea.SO: I have to be part of an organization, part of a problem to be able to come up with a solution. Do-gooding from afar, as a tourist, won’t do.

In the meantime in New York I was also at the center of a disaster, I was not tourist anymore. One of the tasks at hand was the creation of a symbol that could also work as a fundraiser for various charities hit hard by current events.

Our idea was a pin, made of the rubble of the World trade Center, a piece of metal that refused to be destroyed.After the WTC disaster over 1 000 000 tons of rubble was removed from the site and brought by truck and barge to the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island.

The plan here is to make this into a large-scale project. We can raise $ 1.5 million per 100 000 pins sold.

GOOD DESIGN + GOOD CAUSE = GOODMost of current graphic design done by professional design companies is used to promote or sell, which is fine, but design can also do so much more.

DESIGN CAN UNIFYFrancis Hopkinson, a writer, artist and a signatory of the declaration of independence designed the American Flag (never got paid for it though).

DESIGN CAN HELP US REMEMBERThe towers of light by Julian Laverdiere and Paul Myoda, at this mo-ment proposed as a temporary memorial down at Ground Zero, are a beautiful emotional response. They are ghost limbs; we can feel them even though they are not there anymore.

DESIGN CAN SIMPLIFY OUR LIVESEverybody who had to buy tokens in the New York subway system would agree that the Metro card eased the way we go around the city.

DESIGN CAN MAKE SOMEONE FEEL BETTERAfter we designed the CD cover for the Rolling Stones there was quite some press interest in Europe and a number of Austrian and German TV stations came to New York for an interview.This was just around the time my Mom was celebrating her 70 Birth-

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day. I made a T-shirt saying “Dear Mom! Have a great Birthday” and wore it during the interview. The Austrian station agreed to air the interviews exactly on her Birthday.Mom felt better.

DESIGN CAN MAKE THE WORLD A SAFER PLACECipro comes with a complicated, difficult to understand information pamphlet. It could also inform quickly and efficiently about when and how to take it as well as side effects.

DESIGN CAN HELP PEOPLE RALLY BEHIND A CAUSERobbie Canals poster series wheat pasted all over New York in the 80-ies probably spoke to the already converted, but showed me there are other people out there who are not happy with the administration. I guess I picked these posters over the hundreds or thousands of post-ers designers created that would qualify as an example because I saw those actually pasted on the street.There is this entire subsection in design, the peace or environmental poster, where only hundreds are actually printed, only dozens go up in the street and the rest is distributed to design competitions.This of course does NOT help people rally behind a cause, it only helps the ego of the designer.

DESIGN CAN INFORM AND TEACHFrom the abstract geometric signs and animals of the cave paintings to the graphs in the New York Times, designers give us a better under-standing of the issues.

DESIGN CAN RAISE MONEYAs a stand in for all the promotions and ads that raised money for Non-Profit organizations I am showing here the Breast Cancer symbol which made a an impressive amount of money for cancer research.

DESIGN CAN MAKE US MORE TOLERANTRussian designer Andrey Logvin simple poster called Troika speaks for itself.Winter Sorbeck, design teacher and fictional main character in Chip Kidd’s new novel The Cheese Monkeys, says at one point: Uncle Sam is Commercial Art, the American Flag is graphic design. Commercial Art makes you BUY things, graphic Design GIVES you ideas.If I’m able to do that, to give ideas, that WOULD be a good reason to get out of bed in the morning.

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“MOST OF CURRENT GRAPHIC DESIGN DONE BY PROFESSIONAL DESIGN COMPANIES IS USED TO PROMOTE OR SELL, WHICH IS FINE, BUT DESIGN CAN ALSO DO SO MUCH MORE.”

“I DO THINK THERE IS A ROLE FOR EVERYONE. IT DOES NOT REALLY MATTER IF I AM THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK, OR IF I DESIGN THE TOURIST BROCHURES FOR NEW YORK OR IF I SWEEP THE STREETS IN NEW YORK. THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM TO BE NICE TO A CO-WORKER, TO SEND A SWEET LETTER TO MOM, TO LOVE ANNI.”

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THE DESIGNER AS PRODUCERELLEN LUPTON

First published in The Education of a Graphic Designer,ed. Steven Heller (New York: Allworth Press, 1998), 159-62.

The slogan ‘designer as author’ has enlivened debates about the future of graphic design since the early 1990s. Behind this phrase is the will to help designers to initiate content, to work in an entrepreneurial way rather than simply reacting to problems and tasks placed before them by clients. The word author suggests agency, intention, and creation, as opposed to the more passive functions of consulting, styling, and formatting. Authorship is a provocative model for rethinking the role of the graphic designer at the start of the millennium; it hinges, however, on a nostalgic ideal of the writer or artist as a singular point of origin.

The avant-garde movements of the 1910s and 1920s critiqued the ideal of authorship as a process of dredging unique forms from the depths of the interior self. Artists and intellectuals challenged romantic definitions of art by plunging into the worlds of mass media and mass production.

As an alternative to ‘designer as author’, I propose ‘designer as pro-ducer’. Production is a concept embedded in the history of modern-ism. Avant-garde artists and designers treated the techniques of manu-facture not as neutral, transparent means to an end but as devices equipped with cultural meaning and aesthetic character. In 1934, the German critic Walter Benjamin wrote ‘The Author as Producer’, a text that attacked the conventional view of authorship as a purely literary enterprise. He exclaimed that new forms of communication – film, ra-

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dio, advertising, newspapers, the illustrated press – were melting down traditional artistic genres and corroding the borders between writing and reading, authoring and editing.

Benjamin was a Marxist, committed to the notion that the technologies of manufacture should be owned by the workers who operate them. In Marxist terminology, the ‘means of production’ are the heart of human culture and should be collectively owned. Benjamin claimed that writ-ing (and other arts) are grounded in the material structures of society, from the educational institutions that foster literacy to the publishing networks that manufacture and distribute texts. In detailing an agenda for a politically engaged literary practice, Benjamin demanded that art-ists must not merely adopt political ‘content,’ but must revolutionize the means through which their work is produced and distributed.

Benjamin attacked the model of the writer as an ‘expert’ in the field of literary form, equipped only to craft words into texts and not to question the physical life of the work. The producer must ask, Where will the work be read? Who will read it? How will it be manufactured? What other texts and pictures will surround it? Benjamin argued that artists and photographers must not view their task as solely visual, lest they become mere suppliers of form to the existing apparatus of bourgeois publishing: ‘What we require of the photographer is the ability to give his picture the caption that wrenches it from modish commerce and gives it a revolutionary useful value. But we shall make this demand most emphatically when we – the writers – take up pho-tography. Here, too, therefore, technical progress is for the author as producer the foundation of political progress’.

Benjamin claimed that to bridge the divide between author and pub-lisher, author and reader, poet and popularizer, is a revolutionary act, because it challenges the professional and economic categories upon

“THE WORD AUTHOR SUGGESTS AGENCY, INTENTION, AND CREATION, AS OPPOSED TO THE MORE PASSIVE FUNCTIONS OF CONSULTING, STYLING, AND FORMATTING.”

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which the institutions of ‘literature’ and ‘art’ are erected.Benjamin’s Marxist emphasis has a tragic edge when viewed from the vantage point of today. By the time he wrote ‘The Author as Producer,’ abstract art was already at variance with Stalin’s state-enforced en-dorsement of social realism. Benjamin applauded Dada and Surrealism for challenging the institutions of art, and yet such experimental forms were forbidden in the Soviet state he so admired. Benjamin’s theory of the author as producer remains relevant today, however, even if one proposes more modest challenges to the existing structures of media and publishing, opening new paths of access to the means of manu-facture and dissemination.

In the 1920s, Benjamin met Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the Hungarian Con-structivist whose work as a photographer, typographer, artist, and writer made him a prominent figure at the Bauhaus. Benjamin’s 1928 collection of essays One-Way Street reflects on experimental typogra-phy and the proliferation of such commercial media as the pamphlet, poster, and advertisement, which were upending the classical book as literature’s sacred vessel. Benjamin wrote: ‘Printing, having found in the book a refuge in which to lead an autonomous existence, is piti-lessly dragged out onto the street by advertisements and subjected to the brutal heteronomies of economic chaos. This is the hard schooling of its new form.’ Describing the relation of authorship to technology, Benjamin predicted that the writer will begin to compose his work with a typewriter instead of a pen when ‘the precision of typographic forms has entered directly into the conception of his books. One might suppose that new systems with more variable typefaces might then be needed’.

Such ‘new systems’ are, of course, ubiquitous today in the form of soft-ware for word-processing and desk-top publishing. These tools have altered the tasks of graphic designers, enlarging their powers as well as burdening them with more kinds of work to do. Such is the rub of de-specialization. Benjamin celebrated the proletarian ring of the word ‘production,’ and the word carries those connotations forward into the current period. Within the professional context of graphic design, ‘production’ is linked to the preparation of ‘artwork’ for mechanical reproduction, rather than to the intellectual realm of ‘design.’ Produc-tion belongs to the physical activity of the base, the factory floor: it is the traditional domain of the paste-up artist, the stripper, the letterer, the typesetter. The ‘desktop’ revolution that began in the mid-1980s brought these roles back into the process of design. The proletarianiza-

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tion of design offers designers a new crack at materialism, a chance to re-engage the physical aspects of our work. Whereas the term ‘author,’ like ‘designer,’ suggests the cerebral workings of the mind, production privileges the activity of the body. Production is rooted in the material world. It values things over ideas, making over imagining, practice over theory.

When Benjamin called for authors to become producers, he did not mean for them to become factory workers alienated from the form and purpose of the manufactured thing. The challenge for educators today is to help designers become the masters, not the slaves, of tech-nology. There exist opportunities to seize control – intellectually and economically – of the means of production, and to share that con-trol with the reading public, empowering them to become producers as well as consumers of meaning. As Benjamin phrased it in 1934, the goal is to turn ‘readers or spectators into collaborators’. His words resonate in current educational models, which encourage students to view the reader as a participant in the construction of meaning.

How can schools help students along such a path at this critical junc-ture in our history?

Language is a raw material. Enhance students’ verbal literacy, giving them the confidence to work with and as editors, without forcing them to become writers.

— Theory is a practice. Foster literacy by integrating the humanities into the studio. Infuse the act of making with the act of thinking.

— Writing is a tool. Casual writing experiences encourage students to use writing as a device for ‘prototyping,’ to be employed alongside sketching, diagramming, and other forms of conceptualization.

“THE CHALLENGE FOR EDUCATORS TODAY IS TO HELP DESIGNERS BECOME THE MASTERS, NOT THE SLAVES, OF TECHNOLOGY.”

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— Technology is physical. Whether the product of our work is printed on paper or emitted from a screen, designers deal with the human, material response to information.

The medium is on the menu. Familiarize students with the many ways that information and ideas are disseminated in contemporary life. Give them the tools to find their rightful place in the food chain. The power of the term ‘author’ – its cultural authority – lies in its connection to the written text. In order for designers to take charge of the content and social function of their work, they need not become fluent writers, no more than an art director must become a professional photographer or illustrator in order to use these media effectively. In the business of film, a ‘producer’ brings together a broad range of skills – writing, di-recting, acting, cinematography, editing, and so on – in a work whose authorship is shared. For the designer to become a producer, she must have the skills to begin directing content, by critically navigating the social, aesthetic, and technological systems across which communica-tions flow.

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WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY?PETER BIL’AK

First published in Swedish in CAP & Design, 2007

Before starting any discussion or argument it is useful to define the terminology and to make sure that the words which are used are gen-erally understood. Typography is a craft has been practiced since the Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type. According to the latest En-cyclopedia Britannica core definition of typography is that ‘typography is concerned with the determination of the appearance of the printed page’. Other dictionaries, such as Collins English Dictionary from 2004 define the typography as ‘the art, craft or process of composing type and printing from it’. Understood this way, no typography was made before mid-15 century, as it is strictly linked to the invention of the printing type. Understood this way, digitally created letters that appear on an electronic screen also escapes this definition.

That is of course problem of definitions, which are not as flexible as the activities which they define. In the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, where I teach part time, most useful definition of typography comes from the long term teacher Gerrit Noordzij, saying that ‘typography is writing with prefabricated letters’. Unlike the dictionary definitions, this one is deliberately avoiding connecting typography to any specific medium, as they tend to change, yet the discipline continues evolving. Noordzij’s definition also implies a complete distinction from lettering, handwriting or graffiti, which are also concerned with creating letter-shapes, but don’t offer a repeatable system of setting these letters.

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Digital technologies stimulated unprecedented possibilities which blur even most open definitions of typography. If repetition of shapes was the central concept of typography, many designers are working in ways that challenge this concept. OpenType fonts can include random fea-tures, which can simulate unpredictable behavior of handwriting, or simply present seemingly incoherent library shapes.

For the past year, I’ve been working with dancers from Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague on creating a tool which translates text into simple choreographies. User types a word in a typesetting-like ap-plication which plays back this word as an uninterrupted dance se-quence where dancer’s body temporarily makes positions recognizable as letters.

Is this typography? Project like this, as many others using existing digi-tal possibilities seems not much worried about it, but use typographic principles to create autonomous work which cross boundaries of vari-ous disciplines. It seems that typography itself matured into a new cre-ative discipline in which majority of typographers work in a way which is guided by historical understanding of the word, yet there is room for experimentation which explores the boundaries of the profession.

In other disciplines, such debate is in fact a sign of new self-conscious-ness. Novelist Milan Kundera argues that a contemporary novel is no longer defined as a fictional narrative in prose, but can include various forms of writing: poetry, short-story, or interview. Kundera’s books in-clude parts which are philosophical, political, comical, while still being firmly part of a novel. The ability to absorb these various forms is Kun-dera’s definition of novel. Similarly, larger understanding of typogra-phy, which is no longer defined by technology, but evolves with it, may open this discipline to new create endeavors.

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“(...), NO TYPOGRAPHY WAS MADE BEFORE MID-15 CENTURY, AS IT IS STRICTLY LINKED TO THE INVENTION OF THE PRINTING TYPE. UNDERSTOOD THIS WAY, DIGITALLY CREATED LETTERS THAT APPEAR ON AN ELECTRONIC SCREEN ALSO ESCAPES THIS DEFINITION.”

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LOGOS, FLAGS, AND ESCUTCHEONSPAUL RAND

Originally published in the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, vol. 9, no. 3, 1991.

“It reminds me of the Georgia chain gang,” quipped the IBM execu-tive, when he first eyed the striped logo. When the Westinghouse in-signia (1960) was first seen, it was greeted similarly with such gibes as “this looks like a pawnbroker’s sign:’ How many exemplary works have gone down the drain, because of such pedestrian fault-finding? Bad design is frequently the consequence of mindless dabbling, and the difficulty is not confined merely to the design of logos. This lack of understanding pervades all visual design.There is no accounting for people’s perceptions. Some see a logo, or anything else that’s seeable, the way they see a Rorschach inkblot. Oth-ers look without seeing either the meaning or even the function of a logo. It is perhaps, this sort of problem that prompted ABC TV to toy with the idea of “updating” their logo (1962). They realized the folly only after a market survey revealed high audience recognition. This is to say nothing of the intrinsic value of a well-established symbol. 14/hen a logo is designed is irrelevant; quality, not vintage nor vanity, is the determining factor. There are as many reasons for designing a new logo, or updating an old one, as there are opinions. The belief

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that a new or updated design will be some kind charm that will magi-cally transform any business, is not uncommon. A redesigned logo may have the advantage of implying something new, something improved-but this is short-lived if a company doesn’t live up to its claims. Some-times a logo is redesigned because it really needs redesigning-because it’s ugly, old fashioned, or inappropriate. But many times, it is merely to feed someone’s ego, to satisfr a CEO who doesn’t wish to be linked with the past, or often because it’s the thing to do.Opposed to the idea of arbitrarily changing a logo, there’s the “let’s leave it alone” school-sometimes wise, more often superstitious, oc-casionally nostalgic or, at times, even trepidatious. Not long ago, I of-fered to make some minor adjustments to the UPS (1961) logo. This offer was unceremoniously turned down, even though compensation played no role. If a design can be refined, without disturbing its image, it seems reasonable to do so. A logo, after all, is an instrument of pride and should be shown at its best.If, in the business of communications, “image is king,” the essence of this image, the logo, is a jewel in its crown.Here’s what a logo is and does:

A LOGO IS A FLAG, A SIGNATURE, AN ESCUTCHEON.A LOGO DOESN’T SELL (DIRECTLY), IT IDENTIFIES.A LOGO IS RARELY A DESCRIPTION OF A BUSINESS.A LOGO DERIVES ITS MEANING FROM THE QUALITY OF THE THING IT SYMBOLIZES, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.A LOGO IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE PRODUCT IT SIGNIFIES; WHAT IT MEANS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE.

A logo appears in many guises: a signature is a kind of logo, so is a flag. The French flag, for example, or the flag of Saudi Arabia, are aestheti-cally pleasing symbols. One happens to be pure geometry, the other a combination of Arabic script, together with an elegant saber-two dia-metrically opposed visual concepts; yet both function effectively. Their appeal, however, is more than a matter of aesthetics. In battle, a flag can be a friend or foe. The ugliest flag is beautiful if it happens to be on your side. “Beauty;” they say, “is in the eye of the beholder:’ in peace or in war, in flags or in logos.We all believe our flag the most beautiful; this tells us something about logos.Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a prod-uct, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that

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which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will eventu-ally be perceived as second rate. It is foolhardy to believe that a logo will do its job right off, before an audience has been properly condi-tioned. Only after it becomes familiar does a logo function as intended; and only when the product or service has been judged effective or ineffective, suitable or unsuitable, does it become truly representative.Logos may also be designed to deceive; and deception assumes many forms, from imitating some peculiarity to outright copying. Design is a two-faced monster. One of the most benign symbols, the swastika, lost its place in the pantheon of the civilized when it was linked to evil, but its intrinsic quality remains indisputable. This explains the tenacity of good design.

The role of the logo is to point, to designate-in as simple a manner as possible. A design that is complex, like a fussy illustration or an arcane abstraction, harbors a self-destruct mechanism. Simple ideas, as well as simple designs are, ironically, the products of circuitous mental pur-poses. Simplicity is difficult to achieve, yet worth the effort.The effectiveness of a logo depends on:

A. DISTINCTIVENESSB. VISIBILITYC. USEABILITYD. MEMORABILITYE. UNIVERSALITY

“(...)REASONS FOR DESIGNING A NEW LOGO, OR UPDATING AN OLD ONE, (...) THE BELIEF THAT A NEW OR UPDATED DESIGN WILL BE SOME KIND CHARM THAT WILL MAGICALLY TRANSFORM ANY BUSINESS, (...) IMPLYING SOMETHING NEW, IMPROVED (...) IT’S UGLY, OLD FASHIONED, OR INAPPROPRIATE. (...) TO FEED SOMEONE’S EGO, (...)”

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F DURABILITYG. TIMELESSNESS

Most of us believe that the subject matter of a logo depends on the kind of business or service involved. Who is the audience? How is it marketed? What is the media? These are some of the considerations. An animal might suit one category; at the same time that it would be anathema in another. Numerals are possible candidates: 747,7-Up, 7-11, and so are letters, which are not only possible but most common. However, the subject matter of a logo is of relatively little importance; nor, it seems, does appropriateness always play a significant role. This does not imply that appropriateness is undesirable. It merely indicates that a one-to-one relationship, between a symbol and what is symbol-ized, is very often impossible to achieve and, under certain conditions, may even be objectionable. Ultimately, the only thing mandatory; it seems, is that a logo be attractive, reproducible in one color, and in exceedingly small sizes.The Mercedes symbol, for example, has nothing to do with automo-biles; yet it is a great symbol, not because its design is great, but be-cause it stands for a great product. The same can be said about apples and computers. Few people realize that a bat is the symbol of authen-ticity for Bacardi Rum; yet Barcardi is still being imbibed. Lacoste sports-wear, for example, has nothing to do with alligators (or crocodiles), and yet the little green reptile is a memorable and profitable symbol.What makes the Rolls Royce emblem so distinguished is not its design (which is commonplace), but the quality of the automobile for which it stands. Similarly, the signature of George Washington is distinguished not only for its calligraphy, but because Washington was Washington. Who cares how badly the signature is scribbled on a check, if the check doesn’t bounce? Likes or dislikes should play no part in the problem of identification; nor should they have anything to do with approval or disapproval. Utopia!All this seems to imply that good design is superfluous. Design, good or bad, is a vehicle of memory. Good design adds value of some kind and, incidentally, could be sheer pleasure; it respects the viewer - his sensibilities - and rewards the entrepreneur. It is easier to remember a well designed image than one that - his muddled. A well designed logo, in the end, is a reflection of the business it symbolizes. It con-notes a thoughtful and purposeful enterprise, and mirrors the quality of its products and services. It is good public relations-a harbinger of good will.It says “We care.”

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BACK TO SHOWAND TELLPAULA SCHER

Originally published in the AlGA Journal of Graphic Design, vol. 4, no. 1, 1986.

A year ago I relived an experience I had in my ninth grade Algebra II class. The occasion was a seminar on graphic design education at the Maryland Institute of Art where some practicing designers and design educators shared a common stage. The premise was sound: to gener-ate debate between these factions. However, what resulted was disap-pointing. Instead of meaningful discussion and clear explanation, the design educators gave pompous presentations on the structure and curriculum of their schools, supported by pedantic visuals and charts. They spoke in jargon I’ve never used professionally, and didn’t under-stand. These lectures were so abstruse that I hadn’t a clue as to what was going on in their schools. I wondered if the students did either.The “Algebra II” syndrome (a compulsion to hum sixties rock and roll and make spit balls) is my reaction whenever theoretics (theoretics as an end in itself) are applied to design. At Maryland my feelings were compounded. The first was one of shame. That’s what happens when I’m bombarded with incomprehensible language. Boredom follows shame: I tune out and squirm in my seat. Then I realize I’m really angry. Boredom is anger. I’m angry in this case because the speaker is sup-posed to be talking about graphic design, not quantum physics.“Semiotics” was one of the favorite words bandied about the Mary-land session. In fact, some of the educators took great pride in the fact that their schools were breaking new ground in this area. If so, why

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couldn’t any of them make the idea understandable? At the risk of losing anyone who has read this far, the following is a dictionary defini-tion of semiotics: “A general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in artificially constructed natu-ral language and comprises syntactics, semantics and pragmatics.”How does it really apply to graphic design? I thought it would be fun to call seven of my favorite “award” winning designers and ask them to define semiotics. Four said they didn’t know (one of them didn’t want to know); two said that it may have something to do with symbols; and one said she knew but didn’t want to answer. If one asks the same designers how a symbol “works,” they’ll give articulate answers and use good examples to illustrate their points.It’s not just the exclusionary language that bothers me, but the process of making more complex the difficult act of explaining graphic design principles to would-be designers. Obviously my reaction is based on a personal teaching style that might be termed extended apprenticeship. Call it what you will-a style, method or philosophy-it is a hands-on process that has produced tangible results.In 1982, I was asked to teach graphic design to seniors at the School ofvisual Arts, NewYork. The media department has a loosely prescribed curriculum, with an emphasis on doing-there are few, if any theoreti-cal courses. The school hires working designers who represent a broad range of experiences and approaches. Hence the instructors are com-pletely responsible for course content, and are encouraged to teach what they know best. The students have a certain choice in what they take. After the foundation year they audit classes to see whether they feel comfortable with the approach being taught.When I first saw the work by the students entering my class, I thought that they were unprepared to enter the job market unless radical im-provement occurred over the year. No amount of theoretical instruc-tion would help. Therefore, I created a series of complex assignments which were extensively critiqued. The challenge was to pinpoint what was wrong and show how it could be made better. My method was to use simple language and strong visual examples to illustrate my point. In effect, I became the client. But I also became a graphic fascist, dis-allowing typefaces, reordering elements, dictating style and content. The students were forced to design and redesign, yet in the process of following these directives they made their own discoveries which had surprising results.The approach I instinctively used was the old apprentice method. Do what I do, and watch it come out your way. This method requires total commitment. Here the teacher must “give it all away” (style, conceits,

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tricks) or the premise won’t work. It’s sometimes threatening. It can be intimidating to watch as a student easily accomplishes something it took me fifteen years to master. But in the end, and in a relatively short amount of time, some potentially good professionals emerged.At the Maryland Institute seminar one educator presented a chart showing the spiraling growth of students as they absorbed the design theories of successive courses, culminating in graduation-meaning the students were qualified to enter the profession. What hogwash! There was no mention of talent. All the theory in the world cannot replace talent. Talented students can overcome any form of education unless they’ve been bored out of the profession.I abhor the charade at the Maryland session. These academicians, I be-lieve, have created “design speak” to give credence to the profession because they’re embarrassed that it was once called commercial art. Is it necessary to indoctrinate students with jargon just to compensate for a sense of professional inferiority?My point comes down to this: Designers learn by doing. They can learn faster when someone gives them a way to do it. When they learn how, they can understand it. And when they understand it they can teach somebody else.

“IT CAN BE INTIMIDATING TO WATCH AS A STUDENT EASILY ACCOMPLISHES SOMETHING IT TOOK ME FIFTEEN YEARS TO MASTER.”

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THINK FIRST, DESIGN LATERD.K. HOLLAND

Originally published in Communication Arts, January/February 1993.

Intelligent, effective communication tools have never been more nee-ded as we seek to establish a healthy global economy. Research is the meat on the bones of marketing, and it is often through marketing that we are able to develop a successful communication tool.Yet mar-keting is the dirtiest word in the dictionary to many graphic designers; designers who view marketing as a restriction rather than a way to open doors to a better design solution. Webster’s defines marketing as “all the commercial functions involved in transferring goods (or ser-vices) from producer to consumer.”

In some areas of design, such as package design, solid marketing is absolutely essential. JoEllen Nielsen, an industrial designer and group leader in package design at Kraft General Foods observes, “Before we start the design process, we understand the consumer’s vocabulary; what shapes, words, and images give the correct message in the pack-age design; what people understand when they see the package. For instance, if we put a food product in packaging that ‘reads’ as motor oil to our audience, that package has a big image problem.

“RESEARCH IS THE MEAT ON THE BONES OF MARKETING, (...)”

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“When there’s a change in leadership, there’s a tendency to act subjec-tively and scrap the work of the old leadership in favor of developing something new, to make it their own. We think of it as the ownership syndrome. Research is an anchor, a way to avoid reinventing the wheel.”To develop the most appropriate research, Nielsen has turned to Che-skin & Masten, one of the oldest and most respected research com-panies that firmly believes in the first-things-first approach. “Most re-search on design is done after the creative process is complete. We call it a disaster check. It’s usually a disaster because there is a lack of a clear design strategy,” Darrel K. Rhea, a graphic designer and president of Cheskin & Masten in Redwood City, California, says. “The whole point of doing research on design is toempower designers to create breakthrough designs and to give the cli-ent the confidence that the designs will achieve their communication objectives. The technology is here, today, to do this quickly, efflciently.We are interviewing a quarter of a million consumers a year on design-related issues on behalf of the leading corporations of America. Those designers who are not familiar with design research had better wake up”Paula Scher, partner in Pentagram and designer of several award-win-ning package design systems, says that in reality, “Focus groups are killers. This kind of testing forces the consumer to make a knee jerk reaction, so it shouldn’t be surprising that test results are usually re-actionary. What’s worse is corporate opinioneering. Group opinions in corporations are based on fear of change. Design firms often pander to this by not creating change, but creating consensus. Nothing sig-nificant is produced and it’s a relatively dishonest process:’ Corporate opinioneeriog may be defined as research run amuck in the mire of politics and self-interest. Bill Drenttel, also a principal in a graphic de-sign firm, has additional insights about why designers dislike market research. “Half the problem is that the word itself - research - is loaded with fears and expectations. There’s a tendency to think that research is a killer of innovation. We simply want to work with people who are comfortable trusting their own instincts. Listening to people you can look in the eye is the kind of research we like.” Designers can’t design using meaningless averages. Many designers feelsqueamish about marketing because they see it as manipulative and dishonest. And research is often criticized when it reflects the twisted two-and-a-half-members-in-a-household statistical approach.Graphic design can learn from its big sister the advertising industry, which often uses research - what they now refer to as planning - as a foundation for the development of major campaigns. Solid planning clearly establishes parity between the agency and client. The position-

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ing, based on research, is a rational judgment agreed upon by agency and client prior to the creative process. Everything from then on sup-ports the position and subsequent strategy. It’s important to differen-tiate the product or service in a way that establishes its value to the audience. The positioning, usually a paragraph, provides a jumping-off point for the creative process.It’s hard to talk design to a client. They can discuss ideas, but they’re out of their element when it comes to type, color, form, taste. It’s the same with focus groups. “I wouldn’t dream of letting a focus group judge the value of a design. They simply look at the concept, the content and respond to that,” Rich Silverstein, creative director and principal in the San Francisco-based advertising agency Goodby Berlin Silverstein says, “The one exception was the Royal Viking Cruise Line campaign. I felt very strongly about the ad designs, but the client was skeptical that the audience would be able to read the typography. So we tested the ads and I was right. Normally, however, I’d say that designs that break new ground are too scary to focus groups. Letting them be the arbi-ters of taste could be tantamount to throwing cold water on hot new designs.” Some of the recent highly acclaimed campaigns - including Royal Viking, NYNEX Yellow Pages and TV Guide, both by Chiat Day, and Nature Made by Hal Riney & Partners - have concepts that arefirmly (and happily) rooted in planning, yet all are innovative designs.Planners are the consumer’s advocate. They often go so far as to live with the consumer on the consumer’s own turf, absorbing the essence of what it is that thrills or chills them about a type of product or ser-vice. Then they sum it all up in succinct, objective phrases that help establish a tone of voice for the designer. This has proven very useful in some agencies, where a typical team used to be limited to the cli-ent, account executive, and creative director. The planner grounds the project in reality.

“IT’S HARD TO TALK DESIGN TO A CLIENT. THEY CAN DISCUSS IDEAS, BUT THEY’RE OUT OF THEIR ELEMENT WHEN IT COMES TO TYPE, COLOR, FORM, TASTE.”

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On the other hand, graphic design is often based on fluff, not ideas, strategy, or research. In these cases, only pure style and emotion are expressed through the design.We respond to it or we don’t. But there is no concept to discuss with the client, nothing substantial to judge. It’s hit or miss.“It’s ego that makes designers think that they need not look further than themselves for a solution to a design problem,” says Ann Wil-loughby, graphic designer and principal of the design firm, WRK in Kansas City. “Independent planners and researchers, such as Art Katz and Leslie Westbrook in Kansas City and Moira Cullen in New York, are examples of professionals who can provide guidance to maximize the results of the design process. Art is currently working on the develop-ment of research for a global brand in the lawn care category with us. He’s conducting focus groups through our London, Brussels, and U.S. offices to add depth to our cultural perspective.The point is that we are involved as a team and the design results will be better for it.”

RESEARCH HELPS FERRET OUT PROBLEMSOne striking example of the power of research in support of design is the success of the new identity for Columbus Regional Hospital. The seventy-five-year-old hospital is in Columbus, Indiana, a small town of-ten called a living museum of contemporary architecture. Although the official renaming of the hospital was not part of the brief, the hospital wanted the design firm to become involved. Pentagram was selected as the design firm, and they had placed a high value in their proposal to conduct research prior to starting the design process. Pentagram partners and graphic designers Cohn Forbes and Michael Bierut, along with research specialist/writer Moira Cullen, conducted a range of face-to-face interviews, including discussions with the chief of staff of the hospital, the lab technicians, even the mayor and his wife. A writ-ten report of their findings and recommendations, including results of visual and collateral audits, was presented to the identity commit-tee and the board of directors. The hospital had commissioned several outside research studies prior to Pentagram’s involvement. The results had been inconclusive and the conflict over the name had become emotional and political. Cullen recalls, “We had advised the committee that our research process would clarify the naming options and indeed it did. Our report documented the candid voices representing all sides of the issue and concluded with a strong argument and strategy in support of the hospital and the city’s highly valued tradition of civic and professional excellence. The name was unanimously approved.” Cul-

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len observes that, in general, “Research is the listening, a willingness to understand the other that weaves design into the context of today’s social issues and concerns.The knowledge gained in theprocess builds a powerftil platform that allows designers to seek out opportunities beyond the solution of immediate problems.”While design firms too often wish to stay within their own comfortable universe of design solutions when tackling a client project, one sim-ple question put to the client, “do you have any existing research we should look at before we start to design?” would shed a whole new light on many projects. For one thing, if the answer is no, the dialoguemay start to address the next question, “would this project benefit from research?” This, of course, requires two things: a budget ap-proved by the client and the ability on the part of the design firm and/or client to conduct meaningful research. Either harrier can be a killer. Clients who have previously not allowed for this expense have a hard time digging deeper to find the resources to pay for it. In the end the adage, “the most expensive suit you own is the one you never wear” can be translated to “the design that doesn’t work for you is too ex-pensive.” Research is an insurance policy. But even if funds are made available, many design firms and clients have no concept what a thor-ough research process entails.

BASIC QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN CONDUCTINGRESEARCH FOR A CLIENT PROJECTA professional planner or researcher isn’t a necessary ingredient to every project. It’s irrelevant to some straightforward, less significant projects.And most design firms probably ask some of the following questions even if their firm isn’t oriented toward research and marke-ting. It’s just common sense.1. Can the market (i.e., target audience, age, sex, cultural background, geography, education level) be defined?2. What are the features and benefits of the product or service? Fea-tures are attributes and benefits are the positive results of using the product or service.3. What is the competition for this product or service? Are there ex-isting materials that should be reviewed from the competition? How does this product or service “stack up” against the competition and the competition’s materials? What do you believe yourreputation to be within your own industry? Is it different from what you’d like it to be?

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4. What is the target audience’s attitude about this product or service? What’s the appeal? What are potential objections?5. What does the target audience want from this product or service?6. What are the legal regulations, if any, that affect this product or service?7. What are the long- and short-term goals of the client for this prod-uct or service? What is the overall image of the client? Does it affect the product or service?

These questions can result in a verbal or written comprehensive report.The writing is on the wall for design firms that wish to be competitive. “As design matures as a profession, intelligent research will become increasingly necessary in order to develop creative strategies and win the attention of better clients.” Moira Cullen cautions. “The race is on. Dentsu, Japan’s advertising giant, has already established a sepa-rate research division dedicated to human studies; a global informa-tion search designed to monitor worldwide preferences, trends, and lifestyles.”

TAKING THE QUANTUM LEAP FROM DECORATOR TO DESIGNERMany designers who shun research and marketing may also be the ones who wish their clients took them more seriously. “Designers tend not to like to have their ideas censored. And, in fact, there’s nothing preordained that a designer has to have good research in order to come up with a good creative idea:’ says Stephen A. Creyser, a pro-fessor who teaches consumer marketing at Harvard Business School. “Certainly there have been brilliant package designs and ad campaigns that clearly were not based on research. But you will increase your odds with research. And you’ll answer some key questions like, ‘is anybody interested? does anybody care?’”

LIMITS ARE OUR FRIENDSDo designers fear the answers to those questions because they just want to do their own thing, simply to express themselves or to deco-rate? The graphic design industry is still evolving, struggling to be rec-ognized as a profession. And design students are expected to have much different skills when they graduate in 1993 than around the time when graphic design got its name. For instance, learning how to con-duct research is a requirement in some graduate schools now. Christian Simms, who teaches graduate students directedresearch in preparation for their theses in the communications/pack-

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age design graduate department at Pratt Institute, says that while his course is one of the most popular in the department, it is also one of the most difficult. “I’ve seen students faced with a researchproject for the first time actually break down in tears of frustration and anxiety.” Learning how to think analytically and strategically was not what they had in mind when their high school counselor pointed them in the direction of art school. Simms, who is also a graphicdesigner and principal ofThe Creative Alliance in NewYork, thinks, “It’s a mistake for a student to enter a design curriculum thinking that, although he or she is a fine artist at heart, he or she can become a designer. The student wants the acceptance of peers and parents, and fine art may not be seen as a career and design is. But the fine artist may not have what it takes to be a designer.” It’s estimated that there are between ioo,ooo and 350,000 graphic designers out there in the job market. How many of them are actuallyqualified to be graphic designers?The designer must be both analytical and intuitive when problem solv-ing. It’s the designer who learns to think first and design later who learns to control; it’s the designer who doesn’t learn to think and ana-lyze who is doomed to be controlled. Research is a key to the control designers so greatly desire.

“MANY DESIGNERS WHO SHUN RESEARCH AND MARKETING MAY ALSO BE THE ONES WHO WISH THEIR CLIENTS TOOK THEM MORE SERIOUSLY.”

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MUSIC IS MY JOY

NOTA DE AUTOR

“Por ser feliz, por sofrer, por esperar, eu canto. Pra ser feliz, pra sofrer, para esperar, eu canto.” - Caetano VelosoAcredito verdadeiramente que não sobreviviria sem música. Como é que sobre-viria à minha adolescência sem a frieza, a segurança e a suavidade das músicas do Caetano Veloso, ou, em criança, sem a febre da dança das músicas das Spice Girls? A música capitula as nossas vidas. Dá a cada momento uma interpretação que nos sugere sempre como um capítulo que aparece suportado por uma ou várias músicas. A música é-me transcendente, é um plano que garante a minha sobrevivên-cia, auxilia e assegura a minha capacidade de me manter feliz, persistente, renovada e positiva.Ajuda-me a reconhecer a vida. A minha e a dos outros.

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O que é ‘Bossa’? Porque ‘Bossa Nova’? Onde, quando e como tudo começou?

A palavra ‘bossa’ era um termo da gíria carioca que, no fim dos anos cinqüenta , significava ‘jeito’, ‘maneira’, ‘modo’. Quando alguém fazia algo de modo diferente, original, de maneira fácil e simples, dizia-se que esse alguém tinha ‘bossa’. Se o Ricardo desenhava bem, dizia-se que tinha ‘bossa de arquiteto’. Se o Paulo escrevia, redigia bem, tinha ‘bossa de jornalista’. E a expressão ‘Bossa Nova’ surgiu em oposição a tudo o que um grupo de jovens achava superado, velho, arcaico, antigo. Sim, mas o quê era julgado superado e velho, na música popu-lar brasileira? ‘Tudo’, dizia a mocidade bronzeada de Copacabana. A tristeza e melancolia das letras, a repetição dos ritmos ‘abolerados’ e dos ‘sambas-canção’; era tudo a mesma coisa, não obstante os grandes cantores da época: Nelson Gonçalves, Orlando Silva, Carlos Galhardo. Lindas valsas e serestas? Sim, e daí? Daí é que algo tinha de ser feito. Diferentes harmonias, poesias mais simples, novos ritmos. - Ritmo é batida, como do relógio, do pulso, do coração- E Bossa Nova é batida diferente do violão, poesia diferente das letras, cantores dife-rentes dos mestres. A Bossa Nova não seria melhor nem pior. Seria completamente dife-rente de tudo, mais intimista, mais refinada, mais alegre, otimista. Diferente. Não começou especificamente num lugar, numa rua, num evento, num Festival. A rigor, ela não é nem um gênero musical. É o tratamento que se dá a uma música, em termos de ‘batida’ e de ritmo.

BOSSA NOVA E SUAS HISTÓRIASSÓSTENES PERNAMBUCO PIRES BARROS

www.almacarioca.com.br

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O GRANDE ENCONTRO: JOÃO GILBERTO E ROBERTO MENESCALUM DESLUMBRAMENTO - OS PRIMÓRDIOS DA BOSSA NOVA- Tem um violão aí? Eu sou o João Gilberto. Podíamos tocar alguma coisa.Menescal, surpreso com aquela figura esquisita”, mandou-o entrar.Já ouvira falar num “baiano meio louco, genial, afinadíssimo,” que às vezes aparecia no Plaza, na Rua Princesa Isabel, por volta de 1957. Carlos Lyra já conhecia “aquela figura”.Mas voltemos ao apartamento do Menescal.Casa cheia. Menescal levou o baiano para o quarto dos fundos. Cu-rioso. Violão examinado e devidamente afinado, João começou a can-tar “Hô–ba-la-la”, de sua autoria. Uma espécie de beguine – musica caribenha já esquecida. Menescal não entendeu nada da letra. Mas quem se importava com letra? A voz do “cara” era um instrumento! Um trombone da melhor qualidade. E João Gilberto não parecia can-tar. Dizia as letras, num sussurro, mal abrindo os lábios. E repetiu o estranhíssimo “Ho-ba-la-la” cinco ou seis vezes, cada uma de maneira diferente, mas com a mesma batida. A mesma bossa. Quase ninguém conhecia João Gilberto, no Rio, em 1957, principalmente os mais jo-vens. Quem ele era, o que fazia, como aprendera violão, como cantar daquele jeito diferente. Sabia-se, vagamente, que viera da Bahia pra cantar num conjunto, mas não se adaptara. E cantava esporadica-mente, na noite do Rio. Fascinado, Menescal resolveu “mostrar sua descoberta” aos amigos.E saiu com o baiano a tiracolo. Com violão e tudo.Começou pelo apartamento de Ronaldo Bôscoli, na rua Otaviano Hud-son, onde João Gilberto cantou “Ho-ba-la-la” muitas vezes.E cantou outra canção muito estranha, chamada “Bim-Bom”.O primeiro grande marco inicial da Bossa Nova aconteceu em primeiro de março de 1958,quando João Gilberto cantou, com a batida de vio-lão diferente, ‘Chega de Saudade’, posteriormente gravada por Eliseth Cardoso, no disco ‘Canção do amor demais’. Em 1956, ninguém fa-lava em Bossa Nova, mas o apartamento onde morava Nara Leão, no Edifício Palácio Champs Elysée, em frente ao Posto 4, já era ponto de reunião dos rapazes bronzeados de Copacabana: Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, Ronaldo Boscoli e outros. Não se compunham músicas ali. Ouviam-se. E trocavam idéias.Só no ano seguinte, em 1957, João Gilberto chegou ao Rio e, certa noite, foi à casa de Roberto Menescal, na Galeria do mesmo nome, em Copacabana. E aconteceu o grande encontro: O ritmo encontrou a música e a poesia.Música noite a dentro - Como dormir?

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A “pré-Bossa Nova” de Dick FarneyO mestre João Gilberto abriu os ouvidos de Menescal e Bôscoli para uma música que até então desconheciam. O dia amanhecia quando chegaram os três ao apartamento da Nara Leão, onde “o show” foi repetido mais uma vez.E o grupo partiu para a Urca, onde morava Ana Lu. Fascinado, Roberto Menescal queria aprender aquela “batida” diferente e não tirava os olhos das mãos de João Gilberto. E era professor de violão, como o Carlos Lyra. E a voz? O baiano explicou como conseguia soltar “um monte” de frases num único fôlego. “Reza a lenda” que João Gilberto admirava muito a respiração de Dick Farney, que já cantava uma espé-cie de “pré-bossa nova”. E, mesmo fumando dois maços de cigarros por dia, tinha uma técnica muito especial, em termos de respiração. Sinatra, claro, era o guru maior. Ensinou ao mestre que ensinou ao pro-fessor. Talvez João Gilberto nem soubesse que Sinatra era mestre em respiração. Seus mestres eram mesmo os yogues indianos. O baiano era muito estranho!

Com o nome de Farnésio Dutra cantor algum conseguiria ser conheci-do, mesmo com o enorme charme que encantava as meninas, à época da Segunda Guerra Mundial.Assim, um rapaz de 24 anos tornou-se Dick Farney - charme, voz, elegância, bom gosto “pra dar vender”, como se dizia. Esbanjava tal-ento no Cassino da Urca, no tempo em que o jogo era permitido. Ele tinha gravado “Copacabana”, pela Continental, em 1942, de João de Barro, o nosso querido “Braguinha”. Sucesso absoluto que ouve-se até hoje, nas rádios de bom gosto.Mas Dick queria mais, muito mais. Seu “papa” era Frank Sinatra, “The Voice”. Nele se inspirava para cantar, gesticular, andar no palco, estar sempre de gravata e cabelo bem penteado. Já o chamavam de “O Sinatra Brasileiro” e havia até um Fan Clube, de carteirinha e tudo: “Sinatra-Farney Fan Club”.Aos vinte e cinco anos foi para os Estados Unidos para tentar cantar e gravar em inglês, levando um contrato inicial de cinqüenta e duas semanas com a Cadeia de Radio NBC. E não é que deu certo? Gravou um grande sucesso da época: “Tenderly”. Nos dois anos seguintes a Continental lançou outros sucessos, clássicos como “Ser ou não ser”, “Marina” e “Esquece”.Eram os anos 1947 e 1948, quando voltou para o Brasil - não sem antes ser elogiado pessoalmente pelo maior cantor do século: Francis Albert Sinatra. Como escreveu Ruy Castro, em relação a Frank Sina-tra, ouso repetir a frase com relação a Dick Farney: “Não creio que

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o século vinte tenha fundos para resgatar sua dívida emocional para com Dick Farney”. Ele emocionou milhões de corações com “Somos Dois”, “Marina”, “Copacabana”, “Nick Bar”, “Aeromoça”, “Não tem Solução”, “A saudade mata a gente”, “Tereza da Praia”, “Uma loira”, “Um Cantinho e Você” e tantas outras belezas!

Os bronzeados rapazes de Copacabana

Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra e a Academia de Violão.

Em 1956, pressionado pela familia, Menescal teve que “deixar a boa vida” de pesca submarina, violão e milk shake. E veio o conflito natural de todo jovem: a escolha da profissão. Não sabia se, continuando a tradição familiar, faria o vestibular para Arquitetura, se entrava para a Marinha (onde havia muitos “barquinhos” e muito peixe pra pescar), ou continuava a aprender violão com o Edinho, do Trio Irakitan, para desgosto dos pais.Falsificando a carteira de estudante, começava a invadir os lugares da noite carioca, fascinado pelo Tito Madi e pela Sylvinha Telles.Fascinado também pelo disco “Julie is her name”, onde um tal de Bar-ney Kessel “destroçava” um tremendo violão!Preocupados, os pais observavam o fanatismo do Menescal, que cur-sava o último ano do Curso Científico do Colégio Mello e Souza, na Rua Xavier da Silveira.Ele soube que no Colégio Mallet Soares, na mesma rua, um tal de Car-los Lyra já tocava violão por cifra, quase profissional. Muitos alunos, e até professores, “matavam aula” pra ouvir o violão do Carlos Lyra, que já gravara duas músicas. Sem o conhecimento dos pais, Menescal rapi-damente pediu transferência para o Mallet Soares. Queria ficar perto do mestre das harmonias.Era 1956. Os pais de Menescal, como todos os pais, não aceitavam o violão, de jeito nenhum. Era “instrumento de boêmio irresponsável”. E, coitado do Menescal, que não tinha nada de boêmio. Não fumava. Só bebia milk shake. Com a mesada cortada pelos pais preocupados, o nosso Menescal teria que virar-se. Sem dinheiro para o milk shake, propôs ao Carlinhos Lyra abrirem uma Academia de Violão. Mais que depressa, Carlos Lyra aceitou, louco pra se livrar dos desvelos de sua super-mãe.

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MENESCAL, CARLOS LYRA E A ACADEMIA DE VIOLÃOHISTÓRIAS NO APARTAMENTO DA RUA SÁ FERREIRAJoão Paulo, amigo de Carlos Lyra, tinha um pequeno apartamento na Rua Sá Ferreira, para “encontros furtivos”.Sabendo que os dois “professores” planejavam montar uma Escola de Violão propôs-lhes o seguinte:- Vocês me pagam 10% do que receberem dos alunos e a “Academia” pode começar. Fica estabelecido que os “encontros” estão automati-camente suspensos. Negocio fechado. E o que parecia uma aventura começou a dar bons frutos. Aluno não faltava, só que a grande maioria era composta de alunas. As mães zelosas começaram a desconfiar do repentino interesse de suas filhas pelo violão. E logo souberam da ver-dade: Os professores eram “dois tremendos boas pinta”.Mas... negócio é negócio e os professores faziam questão de manter a Academia nos rígidos padrões de respeito às alunas, principalmente o Roberto Menescal.Sucesso absoluto. Em poucas semanas já havia quase cinqüenta alu-nas, inclusive a Nara Leão, em cujo apartamento aconteciam as re-uniões tão famosas.Carlinhos Lyra, que já tinha composto sua primeira música [e letra], “Quando chegares” [1954], tinha na praça as músicas “Menino” e “Foi a noite”, gravadas pela Silvinha Telles. Ficou independente das “mesadas maternas”.Enquanto dava aulas de violão, Carlos Lyra , em 1956, “estoura” com seu primeiro grande sucesso: “Maria Ninguém”. Mal sabia que seria uma das músicas favoritas de Jaqueline Kennedy que cantava “Maria Nobody”!Daí em diante foi só sucesso. O mestre Tom Jobim afirmava que Carlos Lyra era autor das melhores harmonias. Em 1962 ele estava no famoso Concerto de Bossa Nova, no Carnegie Hall, de Nova York. Uma tre-menda desorganização que fez a Bossa ultrapassar fronteiras e ganhar o mundo. Nesse mesmo ano compõe com o mestre Vinicius o musical “Pobre Menina Rica”.Carlos Lyra perguntava ao Vinicius de Moraes:- Mas, Vinicius, como pode uma menina da Vieira Souto se apaixonar por um mendigo?E o nosso “poetinha” retrucou: - É primavera! É primavera!Nesse musical estão duas obras primas de poesia e música: “Minha namorada” e “Primavera”. Sem dúvida, duas das mais belas obras da nossa MPB.

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SURGE UM NOVO PERSONAGEM NA HISTÓRIA DA BOSSA NOVARONALDO BÔSCOLI ENCONTRA ROBERTO MENESCALE COMEÇA UMA PARCERIA DE PRIMEIRA QUALIDADEEra 1956. Numa roda de violão, na Gávea, Menescal encontrou um grupo de rapazes cantando “coisas diferentes”. Um deles tentava can-tar músicas de Dick Farney, o que já era atestado de bom gosto. Era um repórter do jornal “Última Hora” chamado Ronaldo Bôscoli. E cantava muito mal. Conversa vai, conversa vem, viram que tinham muita coisa em comum: Detestavam a tristeza das músicas que à época pareciam “dor de cotovelo”. A exemplo de Dick Farney, adoravam Frank Sinatra. O forte do Menescal sempre foi a música. O do Bôscoli, a letra.Marcaram um encontro que não houve, mas no segundo, na casa de Nara, os dois disseram “presente”. Já era 1957 e a “Academia do Vio-lão” estava fechada,”por motivo de força maior”.Ronaldo Bôscoli levou Chico Feitosa, (com quem dividia um aparta-mento) às famosas reuniões em casa de Nara. Chico já era parceiro de Bôscoli na canção “Fim de noite” e o nosso Ronaldo acabou instalado na casa de Nara, graças à extrema bondade dos pais da futura “musa da bossa nova”. Ele tinha 28 anos e ela apenas 20. Nara e os pais se encantaram com o hóspede. Charmoso, inteligente e, como ela, muito tímido, o que aumentava a atração. Já saíam juntos, sem receios dos pais. Sabiam que em sua companhia ela não corria riscos.A essa altura Carlinhos Lyra e Menescal reuniram suas economias e reabriram a Academia. Novo sucesso: 200 alunas! E quando o Menes-cal apresentou Carlos Lyra ao Ronaldo Bôscoli, aí sim, a Bossa Nova começou a ficar mais rica, em quantidade e qualidade de poetas, can-tores e compositores. E começou o sucesso: “Se é tarde me perdoa”, “Lobo Bobo”. E a Academia prosperava, já com um terceiro professor: Normando Santos. E a turma da casa de Nara aumentou mais ainda, com a chegada dos irmãos Castro Neves, Mário e Oscar, dois “ases” em música instrumental.

NARA LEÃOSEU TALENTO, SUA VOZ, SEUS LINDOS JOELHOSAS FAMOSAS REUNIÕES EM SEU APARTAMENTODr. Jairo Leão e sua mulher, dona Tinoca, eram do Espírito Santo, mas foi aqui no Rio que sua carreira de advogado teve êxito.Tinham duas filhas: Danuza, a mais velha, e Nara, que nasceu em 19 de janeiro de 1942 e veio para o Rio aos dois anos. Tinha apenas qua-torze quando a Bossa Nova entrou na sua vida. Era 1956.O “Cursinho de Violão” recebeu uma nova aluna: Nara Lofego Leão.Ao contrário do pai de Menescal, o Dr. Jairo tinha uma outra opinião

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no que diz respeito ao famoso instrumento. Mesmo antes de existir a escola de violão, Nara já possuia um violão e um famoso professor: Patricio Teixeira, que dava aulas em sua casa. Levava nítida vantagem em relação às colegas de classe, claro.Foi Ronaldo Bôscoli quem descobriu a beleza dos seus joelhos.Escreve ele:“Chegando lá, toquei a campainha e quem me recebeu foi a própria Nara. Estava de shortinho curto, deixando inteiramente a descoberto seus joelhos redondinhos, que foram objeto de muitas poesias, crôni-cas e suspiros gerais.”Nos últimos anos de 1950, trabalhava como repórter, num jornal do Rio. Estreou profissionalmente em 1963, cantando no musical “Po-bre Menina Rica”, de Vinicius de Moraes e Carlos Lyra. Gravou duas faixas no disco de Carlos Lyra “Depois do Carnaval”: “É tão triste dizer adeus” e “Promessas de você”. No ano seguinte, em 1964, gravou seu primeiro LP: “Nara”. Um disco muito polêmico, porque misturou Bossa Nova com samba de morro que “não tinha nada a ver”.No fim daquele ano gravou o famoso “Opinião” e participou do show-protesto. Como Carlos Lyra, Nara era o que se chamava uma cantora “politicamente engajada”. Em 1965 convidou uma nova cantora, Ma-ria Bethânia, para substituí-la no show. Tornou-se, assim, descobridora da famosa cantora baiana.1966 foi um ano de grandes sucessos: “A Banda”, de Chico Buarque e “Disparada” de Geraldo Vandré. “A Banda” dividiu com “Disparada” o primeiro lugar no II Festival de Música Popular Brasileira da TV Re-cord. Sucesso fulminante. O compacto vendeu 55 mil cópias em ap-enas quatro dias.Um tumor, localizado em seu cérebro, causou sua morte em 7de junho de 1989. Ela resistiu quase quatro anos.

ANTÔNIO CARLOS JOBIMA Bossa Nova já nasceu abençoada por Deus. Teve a participação bril-hante do maestro Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim - ou simplesmente Tom Jobim.É unanimidade nacional: Tom foi a figura mais importante da música brasileira, em toda a sua história, só comparável a Villa-Lobos, a quem admirava profundamente. Conhecido e reconhecido em todo o mun-do, Tom havia mudado de endereço, indo morar em Copacabana.Em 1954, Tom retornou a Ipanema, para famoso endereço: Rua Nasci-mento Silva,107 apartamento 201. Foi nele que, em parceria com Vini-cius de Moraes, compôs o clássico “Se todos fossem iguais a você”, em 1956. Em 1957, compôs outro clássico, “Chega de saudade” e

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reencontrou João Gilberto. Alguns pesquisadores acham que daquele encontro resultou a Bossa Nova. Vinicius de Moraes concorda, mas o tema é muito controvertido. Em 62 Tom veio morar perto de mim, aqui na Rua Barão da Torre, também número 107 e aqui ficou até 1965. Naquele ano recebeu um bom dinheiro de direitos autorais e comprou uma casa na Gávea, na Rua Codajás, deixando (fisicamente) Ipanema para sempre. Mas Ipanema, e não Copacabana, é o berço da Bossa Nova. Escreve Ruy Castro em “Ela é Carioca”:“...embora a vitrine da Bossa Nova fosse Copacabana, o coração mu-sical do movimento estava em Ipanema. Foi aqui que ele compôs, com Newton Mendonça, “Foi a Noite”, “Caminhos Cruzados”, “Dis-cussão”, “Domingo Azul do Mar”, “Meditação”, “Desafinado” e “Samba de uma nota só”. Aqui ele compôs, com Dolores Duran “Es-trada do Sol”, “Se é por falta de adeus” e “Por causa de você”.Em Ipanema ele compôs “Eu sei que vou te amar”, “A felicidade”, “Insensatez”, “Agua de Beber”, “O amor em Paz”, “Por toda a minha vida”, “O grande amor”, “O morro não tem vez”, “Ela é Carioca”, “Garota de Ipanema”, “Dindi”, “Inútil Paisagem”, “Samba do avião” e tantas obras primas.Será coincidência que a fase mais solar e marítima da obra de Tom tenha sido feita quando ele morava aqui?”O que vocês acham?

VINÍCIUS DE MORAESO CASAMENTO PERFEITO: DOIS GÊNIOS SE ENCONTRAM NA BOSSAAos quarenta e cinco anos, em janeiro de 1958, Vinicius - o poeta, encontra a semente da Bossa Nova em “Chega de Saudade” - uma das faixas do LP “Canção do Amor Demais”, gravado por Elizeth Cardoso. Seu parceiro - o maestro maior - foi Tom Jobim. A Bossa Nova nascia privilegiada. Três “monstros sagrados”. Já podia-se ouvir a batida do violão de João Gilberto. De repente um diplomata foi promovido a guru de um movimento musical. E não parou mais de escrever mara-vilhas.Entre 58 e 65 produziu, com Tom Jobim, cinqüenta títulos, quarenta com Baden Powel, trinta com Carlos Lyra e vinte com Edu Lobo.A rigor pode-se dizer, sem medo de errar, que a mudança radical da poesia na MPB começou com Vinícius de Moraes. A mulher traidora, vulgar, vilã e vagabunda cedeu o lugar à garota bonita cheia de graça, à mulher amada e linda. A mulher rejuvenesceu, deixou de ser vamp. Passou a ser graciosa.

“NADA MELHOR PARA A SAÚDE DO QUE UM AMOR CORRESPONDIDO”ANTÓNIO CARLOS JOBIM

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Foi a dupla Tom-Vinícius que universalizou a Bossa Nova.E, pasmem, foi muito criticada por alguns críticos “de mal com a vida”. A Bossa foi acusada de influência americana, quando, ao contrário, influenciou e contagiou a música de Tio Sam.É muito extensa a obra poética de Vinícius, literária e musical.

BADEN POWELA BOSSA NOVA ENRIQUECE E GANHA O MAIOR VIOLONISTA DO PAÍSRoberto Baden-Powell de Aquino, ou simplesmente “Baden Powell” nasceu numa cidadezinha do interior fluminense chamada “Varre-e-sai” em 6 de agosto de 1937. Veio para o Rio em 1955 indo morar em São Cristovão.Neto e filho de músicos, o garoto herdou o talento e a genialidade que estarreceram o mundo anos mais tarde. Seu primeiro violão foi “rou-bado” de uma tia e seu primeiro professor foi o Meira - violonista da orquestra de Pixinguinha.Baden começou a tocar profissionalmente no Cabaré Brasil e, mais tarde, na boite do Hotel Plaza, onde se reuniam os primeiros “bossano-vistas”. Seu primeiro sucesso foi “Samba Triste”, composto em 1959, em parceria com Billy Blanco.Escreve Luiz Carlos Maciel: “Para mim, Baden Powell é o maior com-positor da genuína música popular brasileira - ninguém faz uma seres-ta moderna melhor que ele. Toca tudo que é possível e toca melhor do que todo mundo. Ninguém harmoniza melhor do que Baden. Nin-guém. Eu o conheci através de Dolores Duran, no Beco das Garrafas, no Little Club... tenho quase certeza de que fui eu quem o aproximei de Vinicius de Moraes.”Parecia que “uma química especial” existia entre os dois. Ficavam dias inteiros tentando encontrar o fim de uma canção! A primeira parceria foi “Samba em Prelúdio”. E se seguiram mais de 50 clássicos. Baden teve muitos parceiros poéticos, inclusive Paulo Cesar Pinheiro. Desse ultimo, eu gosto muito de “Violão Vadio” que Eliseth interpreta magis-tralmente. O longo período em que viveu na Europa fez com que seja muito mais conhecido naquele continente, principalmente na França e na Alemanha. É, sem dúvida, o maior violonista do Brasil em todos os tempos, não só pela técnica, mas pela capacidade de criar. Ninguém criava acordes mais lindos. Baden suplantava a todos.

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PERY RIBEIROA MAIS LINDA VOZ DO BRASIL GRAVA “GAROTA DE IPANEMA”UM CLÁSSICO DA BOSSA NOVAPery Ribeiro é filho da famosa cantora Dalva de Oliveira e do composi-tor Herivelto Martins. Esse nome artístico foi sugerido e adotado pelo apresentador César de Alencar nos anos cinqüenta.Gravou seu primeiro disco em 1960. No ano seguinte gravou dois grandes sucessos da dupla Antonio Maria e Luiz Bonfá: “Manhã de-Carnaval” e “Samba de Orfeu”. É um cantor de estilo genuinamente romântico e de seus relacionamentos com a Bossa Nova surgiu a primeira gravação de “Garota de Ipanema”, de Tom e Vinicius, feita em 1963. Gravou doze discos desse repertório, dos quais se destacam:

- “Pery Ribeiro sings Bossa Nova Hits” [1980]- “Os grandes sucessos da BossaNova” [1980]Pery é um cantor completo: Um lindo timbre de voz, respiração per-feita, apurado uso do diafragma e uma ótima divisão de frases. Pena não ter o reconhecimento merecido.Desenvolveu trabalhos jazzisticos com Leny Andrade e Bossa Três, com quem obteve sucesso na gravação ao vivo do show “Gemini V”, via-jando pelo México e Estados Unidos, onde atuou também ao lado do Conjunto Sérgio Mendes.Recomendo um disco perfeito do Pery que ouço quase diariamente:- “Tributo a Taiguara”Imperdível!

LÚCIO ALVESOUTRO GRANDE PIONEIRO DA BOSSA NOVANo seu livro -”A onda que se ergueu no mar”- Ruy Castro escreve, com o brilhantismo e a competência de sempre, um ótimo resumo biográ-fico de Lucio Alves, fazendo um paralelo com a vida de outro “monstro sagrado”: Dick Farney.“Os dois tornaram clássico quase tudo que gravaram. Inspiraram seguidores sofisticados, abriram o caminho para a Bossa Nova, partici-param dela como ministros sem pasta e, juntamente com ela, foram atropelados pelo processo. Na passagem dos anos 60 para 70, os dois viram seu mercado encolher dramaticamente. Mas nunca se prosti-tuíram, nunca fizeram concessões a estilos em que não acreditaram. E pagaram por isso: morreram tristes, abandonados pelas gravadoras, afastados do público - Dick, em São Paulo, em 1987, aos 66 anos; Lucio, no Rio, em 1993, também aos 66 anos.”Lucio Alves nasceu em 1927, em Cataguazes, Minas Gerais, mas aos

“É melhor ser alegre que ser tristeAlegria é a melhor coisa que existeÉ assim como a luz no coração

Mas pra fazer um samba com belezaÉ preciso um bocado de tristezaÉ preciso um bocado de tristezaSenão, não se faz um samba não

Senão é como amar uma mulher só lindaE daí? Uma mulher tem que terQualquer coisa além de belezaQualquer coisa de tristeQualquer coisa que choraQualquer coisa que sente saudadeUm molejo de amor machucadoUma beleza que vem da tristezaDe se saber mulherFeita apenas para amarPara sofrer pelo seu amorE pra ser só perdão (...)”

Vinícius de Moraes,in Samba de Benção

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sete anos já estava no Rio. Muito jovem estreou no Programa “Pico-lino”, na Radio Mayrink Veiga. Tinha apenas nove anos e já se apresen-tava, cantando o repertório de Orlando Silva, mas sua grande paixão era a voz do seu ídolo: Bing Crosby. Aos quatorze anos formou o Conjunto “Namorados da Lua”. Já fumava desde os nove anos, “tomava umas e outras” e morava com uma mulher que tinha o dobro da sua idade!E foi aí que surgiu seu primeiro sucesso: “De conversa em conver-sa”, em parceria com Haroldo Barbosa. Daí em diante, foi só sucesso: 1945:”Eu quero um samba”.Lucio Alves gravou quase todo o repertório de Dick Farney. Os dois em-polgaram a garotada que viria a fazer a Bossa Nova: Johnny Alf, João Donato, Dolores Duran, Billy Blanco, Tom Jobim, Newton Mendonça, Tito Madi e Carlos Lyra.Em 1954, Dick e Farney receberam “um presente” de Tom e Billy: O clássico “Tereza da Praia”, em homenagem a Tereza Hermany - mulher de Tom Jobim. Música e uma letra ma-ra-vi-lho-sas!.Poucos sabem que Lucio Alves foi uma presença ativa nos primeiros shows amadores da Bossa Nova. Carro-chefe do famoso show na Es-cola Naval. Esse eu vi, acreditem!

HISTÓRIAS PITORESCAS DA BOSSA NOVATodo mundo ouvia falar muito de João Gilberto. Diziam que era um cara maluco, que já havia sido internado, vivia de cabelo enorme, bar-bado e que, como um vampiro, só saía à noite.Certo dia, chegou à casa do Ronaldo Bôscoli. Não era nada do que diziam as más línguas.Cabelo cortado, barba feita, sapato engraxado e, claro, um violão de-baixo do braço. Tocou um violão fantástico que deixou todo mundo boquiaberto e explicou que tinha brigado com o Tito Madi, não tendo para onde ir. Já era madrugada quando João, convidado pelo Bôsco-li, mudou-se para o pequeno quarto-e-sala do Edifício Haiti onde já moravam, além do Bôscoli, Mièle e um empregado chamado Chico. Cinco “artistas” num quarto-e-sala.Era um sujeito de hábitos muito estranhos.Ficava horas ao telefone, horas no banheiro, para desespero dos outros moradores. Dormia ves-tido, com uma gravata tapando os olhos. Ficava, como um morto, em decúbito dorsal. Sempre muito limpo, muito asseado.Havia um sistema para compras de mantimentos para a casa em que todos cooperavam. Só que o João Gilberto só comprava o que gostava: Tangerina!Ia pra rua de madrugada, passava na feira e comprava quilos de tange-rina. Chegava por volta das seis horas e acordava todo mundo, cantan-

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do as músicas do dono da casa, Ronaldo Bôscoli. Aprendeu “Lobo Bobo” (que o Bôscoli fez para a Nara) e “Saudade fez um Samba”, com acordes magníficos, deslumbrando a todos.Certo dia disse ao Ronaldo (a quem ele chamava de “Ronga”):- “Que suéter bonito, Ronga! Vocês cariocas tem bom gosto! Me empresta?”.O coitado do Bôscoli emprestou o lindo suéter que ficou pra sempre com o “cara-de-pau”.Quem quiser ver, compre o primeiro LP que gravou: “Chega de Sau-dade”. O suéter está lá.Quando a Bossa Nova começou a ser descoberta, produzida e respeit-ada pela imprensa, algumas das mais lindas mulheres de Copacabana começaram a se interessar também pelos seus autores e cantores, que passaram a ser literalmente “cantados”. Elas organizavam festas em seus grandes apartamentos e disputavam avidamente a atenção dos galãs.Tom, Menescal, Bôscoli, Carlinhos e Normando eram os alvos princi-pais. O primeiro era o mais cobiçado, embora casado e super-vigiado por sua mulher - Teresa Hermany.Consta que quando uma moça apaixonada pelo “bom pinta” de-bruçava-se no piano, exibia seu generoso decote e dizia languidam-ente: “-Tom, você me leva em casa?”, ele respondia:“- Um momentinho, vou telefonar pra Teresa”.Mas não resistiu aos encantos da atriz francesa Milene Demongeot.Normando Santos, que era professor de violão na escolinha de Carlos Lyra e Roberto Menescal, tinha uma aluna especial: Maria Teresa - mul-her do então Vice-Presidente da República, João Goulart. Reza a lenda que ela o convidou para “ver um filminho no Palácio, às quatro horas”. Contente da vida, nosso amigo foi ao cinema Palácio, comprou os in-gressos e ficou na porta, à espera daquela beleza de mulher. Esperou, esperou e nada! Voltou pra casa.Depois ficou sabendo que ela o esperava no Palácio Laranjeiras, não no cinema Palácio....

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Penso em Rodrigo, nosso irmão mais velho, toda vez que medito sobre a beleza de Bethânia. Muitas vezes, no meio do almoço, ele fixava extasiado o rosto dela ainda menina e gritava do mesmo jeito que eu hoje grito “Jorge Ben é o maior de todos nós”: “Bethânia é linda”. Acho que ela própria se achava feia, ou temia sê-lo. Rodrigo teorizava um pouco, tecia considerações sobre a comovedora curva da som-brancelha que pendia lírica de uma testa imensa e luzidia. Tenho certe-za de que ele sabia, como eu sei agora, que não se trata de tomar o feio por bonito, obedecendo a uma perversão do gosto. Ao contrário, trata-se de estar apto para captar a beleza exatamente nesses momen-tos importantíssimos em que ela dribla o olho viciado em admirar seus sucedâneos, para, assim, libertada, poder crescer, dominar, vencer.

Quando Bethânia se lançou profissionalmente, eu me irritava com os comentários na imprensa sobre sua “feiúra”. Não por ela ser minha irmã e eu desejar-lhe elogios, mas sobretudo por não suportar a ce-gueira das pessoas diante do lance estético que é o aparecimento da figura física de Maria Bethânia. Eu era impaciente. Eu era mais impaci-ente do que sou hoje e sempre tive essa ansiedade de ensinar tudo que eu descubro a todo mundo. Com o tempo, a própria Bethânia e os ou-tros foram traduzindo a mensagem visual que ela porta ou que ela é. Lembro de Dedé, em Londres, fazendo uma campanha para Bethânia deixar de usar peruca ou alisar o cabelo - Bethânia prometeu que as-sim que chegasse no Brasil, faria um show com os cabelos ao natural.

MARIA BETHÂNIA CAETANO VELOSO

Apresentação do Livro “Maria Bethânia de Mar”1981

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Foi o “Rosa dos Ventos”. Mas uma mulher, uma fotógrafa, contribuiu decisivamente para que tudo isso fosse possível: Marisa Alvarez Lima, numa série de fotografias para a antiga revista O Cruzeiro, onde os lábios, a pele, os seios de Berré se revelam e revelam o que é que a beleza queria dizer com tudo aquilo.

Algo ou muito do que aqui foi dito sobre a beleza física de Bethânia também se poderia dizer sobre a sua beleza moral e/ou intelectual. Este livro é um deslumbrante ensaio sobre isso. Quando eu vi, em casa de Marisa, a série de slides de que ele se comporia, acreditei estar diante do ponto mais alto da mitologia brasileira contemporânea, mas tam-bém diante do documentário mais realista sobre uma pessoa do Brasil de agora. Acho que desde o show Rosa dos Ventos, de Fauzi Arap, não se faz uma coisa tão profunda sobre Bethânia. Como irmão, colega, discípulo, tutor, admirador e amigo, sinto que este livro me recarrega de felicidade. Obrigado, Marisa. A Bethânia nem dá pra agradecer.

“(...), EU ME IRRITAVA COM OS COMENTÁRIOS NA IMPRENSA SOBRE SUA “FEIÚRA”. (...) SOBRETUDO POR NÃO SUPORTAR A CEGUEIRA DAS PESSOAS DIANTE DO LANCE ESTÉTICO QUE É O APARECIMENTO DA FIGURA FÍSICA DE MARIA BETHÂNIA.”

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Como se fala mal de Caetano Veloso no Brasil! Sempre que vejo al-guém bater forte nele, fico me perguntando se, nos Estados Unidos, é assim com Bob Dylan, ou se, na Inglaterra, é assim com os Rolling Stones. Não tenho nenhuma dúvida, por exemplo, de que, se tivesse nascido nos Estados Unidos, Caetano poderia ser um artista tão ou mais importante do que Dylan. Leio essas críticas duras e, quase sem-pre, improcedentes e tendo a imaginar que elas, muitas vezes, são fruto do despreparo e da desinformação (ou da má fé) de quem as escreve. Lanço um olhar sobre a sua trajetória e fico perguntando o que fez de errado.

Lembro-me nitidamente dele desde Alegria, Alegria, do festival de música popular de 67. Alegria, Alegria era uma marchinha que pode-ria ter soado inofensiva aos ouvidos mais conservadores, não fossem o caráter inovador da letra e o uso das guitarras elétricas, que até ali não frequentavam a MPB. Logo depois, veio o tropicalismo, um movimen-to que trouxe mudancas profundas para a música brasileira, reuniu nomes como os de Caetano e Gilberto Gil, praticamente lançou uma cantora do nível de Gal Costa e teve a participação do mais criativo de todos os grupos de rock do Brasil, Os Mutantes. No disco-manifesto do tropicalismo (Panis et Circensis), havia ainda as presenças de Nara Leão, dos letristas José Carlos Capinan e Torquato Neto e de Tom Zé, que os americanos reverenciam três décadas depois. Tudo isso sob a batuta do maestro Rogério Duprat.

O QUE CAETANO FEZ DE ERRADO?SÍLVIO OSIAS

Meio Bossa Nova, Meio Rock Roll, 31/12/2000

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O capítulo seguinte da trajetória de Caetano poderia ter alterado a postura da esquerda ortodoxa em relação ao trabalho dele. Mas nem a prisão, nem o exílio em Londres foram suficientes para isto. Presos no final de 68, Caetano e Gil depois ficaram confinados em Salva-dor e, por fim, passaram três anos exilados na Inglaterra. Um episódio narrado com indignação no livro de memórias Verdade Tropical, num longo capítulo intitulado Narciso em Férias. Na volta ao Brasil, em 72, o show com Chico Buarque também não parece ter contribuído para pôr fim as restrições que a esquerda tinha a Caetano. Mesmo que o show deixasse claro que os dois (e Chico era respeitadíssimo pela es-querda) estavam não só no mesmo palco, mas do mesmo lado, o lado da música popular brasileira.

Além dos dois discos gravados na Inglaterra, com destaque para Transa (72), os anos 70 trouxeram uma experiência radical, em Araçá Azul (73); um projeto mais de intérprete do que de autor; em Qualquer Coisa (75); e discos autorais que foram duramente criticados, mas que continham canções antológicas. Acho que Terra e Sampa são exemplos eloqüentes do que estou dizendo. Elas estão em Muito (78), um disco que a crítica arrasou e que vendeu somente trinta e cinco mil cópias. A década de 70 será lembrada também porJóia (75), Bicho (77) e Cinema Transcendental (79).

Olho para a trajetória de Caetano e, mais uma vez, pergunto qual foi o seu erro. Graças a sua presença na música brasileira, a gente ouve muita coisa que talvez não ouvisse. Como intérprete, gravou um repertório vastíssimo, de Noel Rosa a Lupicínio Rodrigues, de Dorival Caymmi a Fernando Lobo, de Ary Barroso a Tom Jobim, de Cartola a Monsueto Menezes, de Capiba a Antonio Maria, de Luiz Gonzaga a João do Vale, de Raul Seixas a Cazuza. E recorreu ao cancioneiro da língua espanhola, de Agustin Lara a Fito Paez, de Rafael Hernández a Astor Piazzolla; e ao da língua inglesa, de Cole Porter aos Beatles, de Bob Dylan a Michael Jackson.

Uma vez, Gil me disse que ninguém via qualquer flacidez no tecido político dele e de Caetano. O problema era de outra ordem: tinha a ver com comportamento, posicionamento estético, com atitudes que nun-ca agradaram a esquerda clássica, como a defesa do rock e o interesse pela cultura de massas. Tinha a ver com o projeto tropicalista de in-serço da música brasileira no mercado, sem que fosse preciso produzir música de consumo e agir como se isto no estivesse acontecendo. Pela liberdade que sempre pautou os baianos em sua trajetória, é que eles, até hoje, ainda são alvos fáceis dos intolerantes de todos os matizes.

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Do ponto de vista estético, Caetano é quem está mais a esquerda entre os nomes que apareceram fazendo música no Brasil dos anos 60. A opinião é de Gil, para quem o trabalho do companheiro de tropical-ismo é o mais arrojado, corajoso e aberto. E, ainda nas palavras de Gil, é o que corre mais risco. Acho mesmo que Caetano é o mais completo entre os grandes da sua geração, embora não tenha os dotes musicais de Gil, a voz de Milton Nascimento ou, talvez, o talento poético de Chico Buarque. Mas nenhum deles reúne, com tanta intensidade, as suas qualidades. Sem ser o músico que Gil é, compôs canções que marcaram de forma indiscutível o Brasil das últimas três décadas. Sem cantar como Milton, tornou-se um intérprete de grande brilho pessoal. Sem ser, talvez, o letrista que Chico é, também atingiu um nível poé-tico altíssimo. E, como Chico, pode figurar entre os melhores letristas da música popular do mundo.

Debruço-me sobre o cajinho percorrido por Caetano Veloso e pergun-to de novo o que há de errado com ele. Nos anos 80 e nos 90, quan-do seus companheiros de geração diminuíram o ritmo de trabalho, Caetano não só se manteve muitíssimo antenado com o que ocorria na música popular do Brasil e do mundo, como continuou produzindo com frequência e com qualidade. Ou será que Velô (84), Estrangeiro (89) e Circuladô (91) não são discos que estão bem acima da media do que se gravou no Brasil, de quinze anos para cá? Caetano Veloso está se aproximando dos sessenta anos com um brilho que poucos conse- guem manter depois de tanto tempo de carreira, e o Brasil deve a ele o respeito e a admiração que os grandes artistas merecem.

“CAETANO VELOSO ESTÁ SE APROXIMANDO DOS SESSENTA ANOS (...) E O BRASIL DEVE A ELE O RESPEITO E A ADMIRAÇÃO QUE OS GRANDES ARTISTAS MERECEM.”

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41 CANÇÕES DE CAETANO VELOSOESCOLHA E SELECÇÃO PESSOAL

A Luz de Tieta Caetano Veloso

Alexandre Caetano Veloso

Atrás da Verde-e-Rosa Só Não Vai Quem Já MorreuDavid Corrêa / Paulinho Carvalho / Carlos Sena / Bira do Ponto

Bem devagar Gilberto Gil

Carolina Chico Buarque

Coisa Mais Linda Carlos Lyra / Vinícius de Moraes

Debaixo dos Caracóis dos Seus Cabelos Roberto Carlos

Drão Gilberto Gil

Eclipse Oculto Caetano Veloso

Esse Cara Caetano Veloso

Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar Tom Jobim / Vinícius de Moraes

Eu sou neguinha? Caetano Veloso

Jorge de Capadócia Jorge Ben

Linha do Equador Caetano Veloso / Djavan

Livros Caetano Veloso

Lua de São Jorge Caetano Veloso

Luz do Sol Caetano Veloso

Meditação Tom Jobim / Newton Medonça

Mel Caetano Veloso/Waly Salomão

Menino do Rio Caetano Veloso

Meu Bem, Meu Mal Caetano Veloso

Minha Voz, Minha Vida Caetano Veloso

Na Baixa do Sapateiro Ary Barroso

Não Enche Caetano Veloso

Odara Caetano Veloso

Onde o Rio é Mais Baiano Caetano Veloso

Os Passistas Caetano Veloso

Podres Poderes Caetano Veloso

Pra Ninguém Caetano Veloso

Prenda Minha Caetano Veloso

Qualquer Coisa Caetano Veloso

Rapte-me, Camaleoa Caetano Veloso

Sampa Caetano Veloso

Saudosismo Caetano Veloso

Só Vou Gostar de Quem Gosta de Mim Rossini Pinto

Sonhos Peninha

Terra Caetano Veloso

Vida Boa Fausto Nilo / Armandinho

Você É Linda Caetano Veloso

Você É Minha Caetano Veloso

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A LUZ DE TIETACAETANO VELOSO

Todo dia é o mesmo diaA vida é tão tacanhaNada novo sobre o solTem que se esconder no escuroQue na luz se banhaPor debaixo do lençol

Nessa terra a dor é grandeA ambição pequenaCarnaval e futebolQuem não finge, quem não menteQuem mais goza e penaÉ que serve de farol

Existe alguém em nósEm muito dentre nós esse alguémQue brilha mais do que milhões de sóisE que a escuridão conhece tambémExiste alguém aquiFundo no fundo de você, de mimQue grita para quem quiser meu ouvirQuanto canta assim:

Êta, êta, êta, êtaÉ a lua, é o sol,É a luz de Tieta, êta, êta

Toda noite é a mesma noiteA vida é tão estreitaNada de louvor ao luarTodo mundo quer saberCom quem você se deitaNada pode prosperarÉ domingo, é fevereiro,É sete de setembroFutebol e carnavalNada muda, é tão escuroAté onde eu me lembroUma dor que é sempre igual.

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ALEXANDRECAETANO VELOSO

Ele nasceu no mês do leão, sua mãe uma bacanteE o rei, seu pai, um conquistador tão valenteQue o príncipe adolescente pensou que já nada restariaPra, se ele chegasse a rei, conquistar por si só.Mas muito cedo ele se revelou um menino extraordinário:O corpo de bronze, os olhos cor de chuva e os cabelos cor de sol.

AlexandreDe Olímpia e Filipe o menino nasceu, mas ele aprendeuQue seu pai foi um raio que veio do céu

Ele escolheu seu cavalo por parecer indomávelE pôs-lhe o nome: BucéfaloAo dominá-lo , para júbilo, espanto e escândaloDe seu próprio pai, que contratou para seu preceptorUm sábio de EstagiraCuja cabeça ainda hoje sustenta o Ocidente:O nome, Aristóteles – nome Aristóteles se repetiriaDesde esses tempos até nossos tempos e além.Ele ensinou o jovem Alexandre a sentir filosofiaPra que, mais que forte e valente, chegasse ele a ser sábio também.

AlexandreDe Olímpia e Filipe o menino nasceu, mas ele aprendeuQue seu pai foi um raio que veio do céu

Ainda criança ele surpreendeu importantes visitantesVindos como embaixadores do Império da PérsiaPois os recebeu, na ausência de Filipe, com gestos elegantesDe que o rei, seu próprio pai, não seria capaz.Em breve estaria ao lado de Filipe no campo de batalhaE assinalaria seu nome na história entre os grandes generais.

AlexandreDe Olímpia e Filipe o menino nasceu, mas ele aprendeuQue seu pai foi um raio que veio do céu

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Com Hefestião, seu amadoSeu bem na paz e na guerraCorreu em honra de Pátroclo – os dois corpos nus –Junto ao túmulo de AquilesO herói enamorado, o amor

Na grande batalha de Queronéia, Alexandre destruíaA Esquadra Sagrada de Tebas, chamada A Invencível.Aos dezesseis anos, só dezesseis anos, assim já exibiaToda a amplidão da luz do seu gênio militar.Olímpia incitava o menino do sol a afirmar-seSe Filipe deixava a família da mãeDe outro filho dos seus se insinuar.

AlexandreDe Olímpia e Filipe o menino nasceu, mas ele aprendeuQue seu pai foi um raio que veio do céu

Feito rei aos vinte anosTransformou a Macedônia,Que era um reino periférico, dito bárbaro,Em esteio do helenismo e dos gregos, seu futuro, seu sol.

O grande Alexandre, o Grande, AlexandreConquistou o Egito e a PérsiaFundou cidades, cortou o nó górdio, foi grande;Se embriagou de poder, alto e fundo, fundando o nosso mundo,Foi generoso e malvado, magnânimo e cruel;Casou com uma persa, misturando raças, mudou-nos terra céu e mar,Morreu muito moço, mas antes impôs-se do Punjab a Gibraltar.

AlexandreDe Olímpia e Filipe o menino nasceu, mas ele aprendeuQue seu pai foi um raio que veio do céu.

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ATRÁS DA VERDE-E-ROSA SÓ NÃO VAI QUEM JÁ MORREUDAVID CORRÊA / PAULINHO CARVALHO / CARLOS SENA / BIRA DO PONTO

Me leva que eu vouSonho meuAtrás da verde-e-rosaSó não vai quem já morreu

Bahia é luzDe poeta ao luarMisticismo de um povoSalve todos orixásQuem me mandouEstrelas de láFoi São SalvadorPra noite brilharMangueira!Jogando flores pelo marSe encantou com a musaQue a Bahia dáObá, berimbau, ganzáÔ, capoeiraJoga um verso pra IaiáCaetano e Gil, ôCom a tropicália no olharDoces bárbaros ensinandoA brisa bailarA meiguice de uma vozUma cançãoNo teatro opniãoBethânia explode coraçãoDomingo no parque, amorAlegria, alegria, eu vouA flor na festa interiorSeu nome é GalAplausos ao cancioneiroÉ carnaval, é Rio de Janeiro

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BEM DEVAGARGILBERTO GIL

Sem correr, bem devagarA felicidade voltou para mimSem perceber, sem suspeitarO meu coração deixou você surgirE como o despertar depois de um sonho mauEu vi o amor sorrindo em seu olharE a beleza da ternura de sentir vocêChegou sem correr, bem devegarAmor velho que se perdeSai correndo para outro ninhoAmor novo que se ganhaVem sem pressa, vem mansinho

COISA MAIS LINDACARLOS LYRA / VINÍCIUS DE MORAES

Coisa mais bonita é você,Assim,Justinho vocêEu juro,eu não sei porque vocêVocê é mais bonita que a flor,Quem dera,A primavera da florTivesse todo esse aroma de beleza que é o amorPerfumando a natureza,Numa forma de mulherPorque tão linda assim não existe a florNem mesmo a cor não existeE o amorNem mesmo o amor existePorque tão linda assim não existeA florNem mesmo a cor não existeE o amor,Nem mesmo o amor existe

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CAROLINACHICO BUARQUE

CarolinaNos seus olhos fundosGuarda tanta dorA dor de todo esse mundoEu já lhe avisei que não vai darSeu pranto não vai nada ajudarEu já convidei pra dançarÉ hora, eu sei, de aproveitarLá fora, amorUma rosa nasceuTodo mundo sambouUma estrela caiuEu bem que mostrei sorrindoPela janela, ói, que lindoE só Carolina não viuCarolinaNos seus olhos tristesGuarda tanto amorO amor que já não existeEu bem que avisei, vai acabarDe tudo que lhe dei para aceitarMil versos cantei pra agradarAgora não sei como explicarLá fora, amorUma rosa morreuUma festa acabouNosso barco partiuEu bem que mostrei a elaO tempo passou na janelaE só Carolina não viu

“AINDA CRIANÇA ELE SURPREENDEU IMPORTANTES VISITANTES VINDOS COMO EMBAIXADORES DO IMPÉRIO DA PÉRSIAPOIS OS RECEBEU, NA AUSÊNCIA DE FILIPE, COM GESTOS ELEGANTES ”

“E COMO O DESPERTAR DEPOIS DE UM SONHO MAUEU VI O AMOR SORRINDO EM SEU OLHARE A BELEZA DA TERNURA DE SENTIR VOCÊ CHEGOU SEM CORRER, BEM DEVEGAR”

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DEBAIXO DOS CARACÓIS DOS SEUS CABELOSROBERTO CARLOS

Um dia a areia brancaSeus pés irão tocarE vai molhar seus cabelosA água azul do mar

Janelas e portas vão se abrirPra ver você chegarE ao se sentir em casaSorrindo vai chorar

Debaixo dos caracóis dos seus cabelosUma história pra contarDe um mundo tão distanteDebaixo dos caracóis dos seus cabelosUm soluço e a vontadeDe ficar mais um instante

As luzes e o coloridoQue você vê agoraNas ruas por onde andaNa casa onde mora

Você olha tudo e nadaLhe faz ficar contenteVocê só deseja agoraVoltar pra sua gente

(Refrão)

Você anda pela tardeE o seu olhar tristonhoDeixa sangrar no peitoUma saudade, um sonhoUm dia vou ver vocêChegando num sorrisoPisando a areia brancaQue é seu paraíso

(Refrão)

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DRÃOGILBERTO GIL

Drão, o amor da gente é como um grãoUma semente de ilusãoTem que morrer pra germinarPlantar nalgum lugarRessuscitar no chãoNossa semeaduraQuem poderá fazerAquele amor morrerNossa caminhaduraDura caminhadaPela estrada escura

Drão, não pense na separaçãoNão despedace o coraçãoO verdadeiro amor é vãoEstende-se infinitoImenso monolitoNossa arquiteturaQuem poderá fazerAquele amor morrerNossa caminhaduraCama de tatamePela vida afora

Drão, os meninos são todos sãoOs pecados são todos meusDeus sabe a minha confissãoNão há o que perdoarPor isso mesmo é que háDe haver mais compaixãoQuem poderá fazerAquele amor morrerSe amor é como um grãoMorre nasce trigoVive morre pãoDrão

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ECLIPSE OCULTOCAETANO VELOSO

Nosso amor não deu certoGargalhadas e lágrimasDe perto fomos quase nadaTipo de amor que não pode dar certoNa luz da manhãE desperdiçamos os blues do DjavanDemasiadas palavrasFraco impulso de vidaTravada a mente na ideologiaE o corpo não agiaComo se o coração tivesse antes que optarEntre o inseto e o inseticida

Não me queixoEu não soube te amarMas não deixoDe querer conquistarUma coisa qualquer em vocêO que seráComo nunca se mostraO outro lado da luaEu desejo viajarNo outro lado da suaMeu coração galinha de leãoNão quer mais amarrar frustraçãoO eclipse oculto na luz do verão

Mas bem que nós fomos felizesSó durante o prelúdioGargalhadas e lágrimasAté irmos pra o estúdioMas na hora da camaNada pintou direito é minha cara falarNão sou proveitoSou puraNão me queixo...

Nada tem que dar certoNosso amor é bonito

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Só não disse ao que veioAtrasado e aflitoE paramos no meioSem saber os desejosAonde é que iam darE aquele projetoAinda está no ar?Não quero que vocêFique fera comigoQuero ser seu amorQuero ser seu amigoQuero que tudo saiaComo o som de Tim MaiaSem grilos de mimSem desespero, sem tédio, sem fim

ESSE CARACAETANO VELOSO

Ah, que esse cara tem me consumidoA mim e a tudo que eu quisCom seus olhinhos infantisComo os olhos de um bandidoEle está na minha vida porque querEu estou pra o que der e vierEle chega ao anoitecerQuando vem a madrugada, ele someEle é quem querEle é o homemEu sou apenas uma mulher

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EU SEI QUE VOU TE AMARTOM JOBIM / VINÍCIUS DE MORAES

Refrão:Eu sei que vou te amarPor toda a minha vidaEu vou te amarA cada despedidaEu vou te amarDesesperadamenteEu sei que vou te amar..

E cada verso meu seráPrá te dizerQue eu sei que vou te amarPor toda a minha vida...

Eu sei que vou chorarA cada ausência tua eu vou chorarMas cada volta tua há de apagarO que essa tua ausência me causou...

Eu sei que vou sofrerA eterna desventura de viverÀ espera de viver ao lado teuPor toda a minha vida...

(2x)

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EU SOU NEGUINHA?CAETANO VELOSO

Eu tava encostad’ali minha guitarraNo quadrado branco vídeo papelãoEu era o enigma, uma interrogaçãoOlha que coisa mais que coisa à toa, boa boa boa boa boaEu tava com graça...Tava por acaso ali, não era nadaBunda de mulata, muque de peãoTava em Madureira, tava na bahiaNo Beaubourg no Bronx, no Brás e eu e eu e eu e euA me perguntar: Eu sou neguinha?Era uma mensagem lia uma mensagemParece bobagem mas não era nãoEu não decifrava, eu não conseguiaMas aquilo ia e eu ia e eu ia e eu ia e eu ia e eu iaEu me perguntava: era um gesto hippie, um desenho estranhoHomens trabalhando, pare, contramãoE era uma alegria, era uma esperançaE era dança e dança ou não ou não ou não ou não ou não tava perguntando:Eu sou neguinha? (3x)Eu tava rezando ali completamenteUm crente, uma lente, era uma visãoTotalmente terceiro sexo totalmente terceiro mundo terceiro milênio carne nua nua nua nua nua nua nuaEra tão gozadoEra um trio elétrico, era fantasiaEscola de samba na televisãoCruz no fim do túnel, becos sem saídaE eu era a saída, melodia, meio-dia dia diaEra o que dizia: Eu sou neguinha?Mas via outras coisas: via o moço forteE a mulher macia den’da escuridãoVia o que é visível, via o que não viaO que a poesia e a profecia não vêem mas vêem, vêem, vêem, vêem, vêem,É o que pareciaQue as coisas conversam coisas surpreendentesFatalmente erram, acham soluçãoE que o mesmo signo que eu tenho ler e serÉ apenas um possível ou impossível em mim em mim em mil em mil em milE a pergunta vinha:Eu sou neguinha?

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JORGE DE CAPADÓCIAJORGE BEN

Jorge sentou praçana cavalariaeu estou feliz porque eu também sou da sua companhia (2X)Eu estou vestido com as roupas e as armas de JorgePara que meus inimigos tenham maõs e não me toquemPara que meus inimigostenham pés e não me alcacemPara que meus inimigostenham olhos e não me vejamE nem mesmo o pensamentoeles possam ter para me fazeram malArmas de fogomeu corpo não alcançarãoFacas e espadas se quebremsem o meu corpo tocarCordas e correntes se arrebentem sem o meu corpo amarrarpois eu estou vestido com as roupas e as armas de JorgeJorge é de Capadócia

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LINHA DO EQUADORCAETANO VELOSO / DJAVAN

Luz das estrelasLaço do infinitoGosto tanto dela assimRosa amarelaVoz de todo o gritoGosto tanto dela assimEsse imenso desmedido amorVai além de seja o que forVai além do que eu vouDo que sou minha dorMinha linha do equadorEsse imenso desmedido amorVai além de seja o que forPassa mais além do céu de BrasiliaTraço do arquitetoGosto tanto dela assimGosto de filhaMúsica de pretoGosto tanto dela assimEssa desmesura de paixãoÉ loucura do coraçãoMinha Foz do IguaçuPólo Sul, meu azulLuz do sentimento nuEsse imenso desmedido amorVai além de seja o que forVai além do que eu vouDo que sou minha dorMinha linha do equadorMas é doce morrer nesse marDe lembrar e nunca esquecerSe eu tivesse mais alma pra darEu daria, isso pra mim é viver

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LIVROSCAETANO VELOSO

Tropeçavas nos astros desastradaQuase não tínhamos livros em casaE a cidade não tinha livrariaMas os livros que em nossa vida entraramSão como a radiação de um corpo negroApontando pra expansão do UniversoPorque a frase, o conceito, o enredo, o verso(E, sem dúvida, sobretudo o verso)É o que pode lançar mundos no mundo

Tropeçavas nos astros desastradaSem saber que a ventura e a desventuraDessa estrada que vai do nada ao nadaSão livros e o luar contra a cultura

Os livros são objetos transcendentesMas podemos amá-los do amor táctilQue votamos aos maços de cigarroDomá-los, cultivá-los em aquáriosEm estantes, gaiolas, em fogueirasOu lançá-los pra fora das janelas(Talvez isso nos livre de lançarmo-nos)Ou – o que é muito pior – por odiarmo-losPodemos simplesmente escrever um:Encher de vãs palavras muitas páginasE de mais confusão as prateleiras

Tropeçavas nos astros desastradaMas pra mim foste a estrela entre as estrelas

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LUA DE SÃO JORGECAETANO VELOSO

Lua de São JorgeLua deslumbranteAzul verdejanteCauda de pavão

Lua de São JorgeCheia branca inteiraOh! Minha bandeiraSolta na amplidão

Lua de São JorgeLua brasileiraLua do meu coração

Lua de São JorgeLua maravilhaMãe, irmã e filhaDe todo esplendor

Lua de São JorgeBrilha nos altaresBrilha nos lugaresOnde estou e vou

Lua de São JorgeBrilha sobre os maresBrilha sobre o meu amor

Lua de São JorgeLua soberanaNobre porcelanaSobre a seda azul

Lua de São JorgeLua da alegriaNão se vê um diaClaro como tu

Lua de São JorgeSerás minha guiaNo Brasil de norte a sul

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LUZ DO SOLCAETANO VELOSO

Luz do solQue a folha traga e traduzEm verde novoEm folha em graçaEm vida em força em luz

Céu azul que vem atéOnde os pés tocam ne terraE a terra inspira e exala seus azuisReza, reza o rio

Córrego para o rio, o rio pro marReza correnteza roça a beira doura a areiaMarcha o homem sobre o chãoLuz do sol

Leva no coração uma ferida acesaDono do sim e do nãoDiante da visão da infinita belezaFinda por ferir com a mão essa delicadezaA coisa mais queridaA glória da vidaQue a folha traga e traduzEm verde novoEm folha em graçaEm vida em força em luz

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MEDITAÇÃOTOM JOBIM / NEWTON MEDONÇA

Quem acreditouNo amor, no sorriso e na florEntão sonhou, sonhouE perdeu a pazO amor, o sorriso e a florSe transformam depressa demaisQuem no coraçãoAbrigou a tristeza de verTudo isso se perderE na solidãoProcurou o caminho e seguiuJá descrente de um dia de um dia felizQuem chorou, chorouE tanto que o seu pranto já secouQuem depois voltouAo amor, ao sorriso e à florEntão tudo encontrouPois a própria dorRevelou o caminho do amorE a tristea acabou

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MELCAETANO VELOSO/WALY SALOMÃO

Ó abelha rainha, faz de mimUm instrumento de teu prazerSim, e de tua glóriaPois se é noite de completa escuridãoProvo do favo de teu melCavo a direta claridade do céuE agarro o sol com a mão

É meio-dia, é meia-noite, é toda horaLambe olhos, torce cabelosFeiticeira vamo-nos emboraÉ meio-dia, é meia-noiteFaz um zum na testa, na janelaNa fresta da telhaPela escada, pela portaPela estrada toda aforaÂnima de vidaO seio da floresta amor emprestaA praia deserta zumbe na orelha: concha do marÓ abelha, boca de melCarmim, carnuda, vermelhaÓ abelha rainha, faz de mimUm instrumento de teu prazerSim, e de tua glória

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MENINO DO RIOCAETANO VELOSO

Menino do rioCalor que provoca arrepioDragão tatuado no braçoCalção, corpo aberto no espaçoCoração de eterno flerteAdoro ver-teMenino vadioTensão flutuante do rioEu canto pra Deus proteger-teO Havaí seja aquiTudo o que sonharestodos os lugaresAs ondas dos maresPois quando eu te vejo eu desejo o teu desejoMenino do rioCalor que provoca arrepioToma esta canção como um beijo

MEU BEM, MEU MALCAETANO VELOSO

Você é meu caminhoMeu vinho, meu vícioDesde o início estava vocêMeu bálsamo benignoMeu signo, meu guruPorto seguroOnde eu volteiMeu mar e minha mãeMeu medo e meu champagneVisão do espaço sideralOnde o que eu sou se afogaMeu fumo e minha yogaVocê é minha drogaPaixão e carnavalMeu zen, meu bem, meu mal

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MINHA VOZ, MINHA VIDACAETANO VELOSO

Minha voz, minha vidaMeu segredo e minha revelaçãoMinha luz escondidaMinha bússola e minha desorientação

Se o amor escravizaMas é a única libertaçãoMinha voz é precisaVida que não é menos minha que da canção

Por ser feliz, por sofrer, por esperarEu cantoPor ser feliz, pra sofrer, para esperarEu canto

Meu amor, acrediteQue se pode crescer assim pra nósUma flor sem limiteÉ somente porque eu trago a vida aqui na voz

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NA BAIXA DO SAPATEIROARY BARROSO

Na Baixa do Sapateiro eu encontreu um diaA morena mais frajola da BahiaPedi-lhe um beijo, não deuUm abraço, sorriuPedi-lhe a mão, não quis dar, fugiuBahia, terra da felicidadeMorena, eu ando louco de saudadeMeu Senhor do BonfimArranje outra morena igualzinha pra mimOh! amor, aiAmor bobagem que a gente não explica, ai, aiProva um bocadinho, ôFica envenenado, ôE pro resto da vida é um tal de sofrerÔlará, ôleréÔ BahiaBahia que não me sai do pensamentoFaço o meu lamento, ôNa desesperança, ôDe encontrar nesse mundoUm amor que eu perdi na Bahia, vou contar

Ô BahiaBahia que não me sai do pensamento...

“POR SER FELIZ, POR SOFRER, POR ESPERAR EU CANTO PRA SER FELIZ, PRA SOFRER, PARA ESPERAR EU CANTO ”

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NÃO ENCHECAETANO VELOSO

Me larga, não encheVocê não entende nada e eu não vou te fazer entenderMe encara de frente:É que você nunca quis ver, não vai querer, não quer verMeu lado, meu jeito,O que eu herdei de minha gente e nunca posso perderMe larga, não enche,Me deixa viver, me deixa viver, me deixa viver, me deixa viver

Cuidado, oxente!Está no meu querer poder fazer você desabarDo salto. Nem tenteManter as coisas como estão porque não dá, não vai dar.Quadrada, demente,A melodia do meu samba põe você no lugarMe larga, não encheMe deixa cantar, me deixa cantar, me deixa cantar, me deixa cantar

Eu vouClarificarA minha vozGritando: nada mais de nós!Mando meu bando anunciar:Vou me livrar de você.

Harpia, aranha,Sabedoria de rapina e de enredar, de enredarPerua, piranhaMinha energia é que mantém você suspensa no arPra rua!, se manda,Sai do meu sangue, sanguessuga, que só sabe sugarPirata, malandra,Me deixa gozar, me deixa gozar, me deixa gozar, me deixa gozar

Vagaba, vampira,O velho esquema desmorona desta vez pra valerTarada, mesquinha,

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Pensa que é a dona e eu lhe pergunto: quem te deu tanto axé?À toa, vadia,Começa uma outra história aqui na luz deste dia D:

Na boa, na minha,Eu vou viver dez,Eu vou viver cem,Eu vou viver mil,Eu vou viver sem você.

ODARACAETANO VELOSO

Deixe eu dançarPro meu corpo ficar odaraMinha cuca ficar odaraDeixe eu cantarQue é pro mundo ficar odaraPra ficar tudo jóia raraQualquer coisa que se sonharaCanto e danço que dará

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ONDE O RIO É MAIS BAIANOCAETANO VELOSO

A Bahia,Estação primeira do BrasilAo ver a Mangueira nela inteira se viu,Exibiu-se sua face verdadeira.Que alegriaNão ter sido em vão que ela expediuAs Ciatas pra trazerem o samba pra o Rio(Pois o mito surgiu dessa maneira).

E agora estamos aquiDo outro lado do espelhoCom o coração na mãoPensando em Jamelão no Rio VermelhoTodo ano, todo anoNa festa de IemanjáPresente no dois de fevereiroNós aqui e ele láIsso é a confirmação de que a MangueiraÉ onde o Rio é mais baiano.

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OS PASSISTASCAETANO VELOSO

Vem,Eu vou pousar a mão no teu quadrilMultiplicar-te os pés por muitos milFita o céu,Roda:A dorDefine nossa vida todaMas estes passos lançam modaE dirão ao mundo por onde ir.Às vezes tu te voltas para mimNa dança, sem te dares conta enfimQue tambémAmasMas, ah!Somos apenas dois mulatosFazendo poses nos retratosQue a luz da vida imprimiu de nós.

Se desbotássemos, outros revelar-nos-íamos no Carnaval.Roubemo-nos ao deus Tempo enos demos de graça à beleza total, vem.

Nós,Cartão-postal com touros em Madri,O Corcovado e o Redentor daqui,Salvador,RomaAmor,Onde quer que estejamos juntosMultiplicar-se-ão assuntos de mãos e pésE desvãos do ser.

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PODRES PODERESCAETANO VELOSO

Enquanto os homens exercem seus podres poderesMotos e fuscas avançam os sinais vermelhosE perdem os verdesSomos uns boçaisQueria querer gritar setecentas mil vezesComo são lindos, como são lindos os burguesesE os japonesesMas tudo é muito maisSerá que nunca faremos se não confirmarA incompetência da América CatólicaQue sempre precisará de ridículos tiranos?Será será que será que será que seráSerá que essa minha estúpida retóricaTerá que soar, terá que se ouvirPor mais zil anos?Enquanto os homens exercem seus podres poderesÍndios e padres e bichas, negros e mulheresE adolescentesFazem o carnavalQueria querer cantar afinado com elesSilenciar em respeito ao seu transe, num êxtaseSer indecente mas tudo é muito mauOu então cada paisano e cada capatazCom sua burrice fará jorrar sangue demaisNos pantanais, nas cidades, caatingasE nos gerais?Será que apenas os hermetismos pascoaisOs tons os mil tons, seus sons e seus dons geniaisNos salvam, nos salvarão dessas trevasE nada mais?Enquanto os homens exercem seus podres poderesMorrer e matar de fome, de raiva e de sedeSão tantas vezes gestos naturaisEu quero aproximar o meu cantar vagabundoDaqueles que velam pela alegria do mundoIndo mais fundoTins e bens e tais

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PRA NINGUÉMCAETANO VELOSO

Nana cantando “Nesse mesmo lugar”Tim Maia cantando “Arrastão”Bethânia cantando “A primeira manhã”Djavan cantando “Drão”Chico cantando “Exaltação à Mangueira”Paulinho, “Sonho de um carnaval”Gal cantando “Candeias”E Elis, “Como nossos pais”Elba cantando “De volta pra o aconchego”Sílvio cantando “Mulher”E Elisete cantando “Chega de mágoa”Carmen cantando “Adeus batucada”Gilberto cantando “Sobre todas as coisas”Cauby cantando “Camarim”Orlando cantando “Faixa de cetim”Milton, “O que será?”Roberto, “A madrasta”Bosco, “Rio de Janeiro”E Dalva, “Poeira do chão”:

Melhor do que isso só mesmo o silêncioE melhor do que o silêncio só João

Nara cantando “Diz que fui por aí”Marisa, “A menina dança”Aracy cantando “A camisa amarela”Amélia, “Boêmio”Max, “Polícia”Nora, “Menino grande”Dolores, “Não se avexe não”:

Melhor do que isso só mesmo o silêncioMelhor do que o silêncio só João

“MELHOR DO QUE ISSO SÓ MESMO O SILÊNCIO E MELHOR DO QUE O SILÊNCIO SÓ JOÃO ”

“MELHOR DO QUE ISSO SÓ MESMO O SILÊNCIO E MELHOR DO QUE O SILÊNCIO SÓ JOÃO ”

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PRENDA MINHACAETANO VELOSO

Tenho de ir para o rodeioPrenda minhaNo rincão do bem quererNoite escura, noite escuraPrenda minhaToda noite me atentouQuando foi de madrugadaPrenda minhaFoi-se embora e me deixou

QUALQUER COISACAETANO VELOSO

Esse papo já tá qualquer coisaVocê já tá prá lá de MarrakeshMexeQualquer coisa dentro doidaJá qualquer coisa doidaDentro mexeNão se avexe nãoBaião de doisDeixe de manha, deixe de manha, poisSem essa aranha, sem essa aranhaSem essa aranhaNem a sanha arranha o carroNem o sarro arranha a EspanhaMeça, tamanha, meça, tamanhaEsse papo seu já tá de manhã

Berro pelo aterroPelo esterroBerro por seu berroPelo seu erroQuero que você me ganheQue você me apanheSou o seu bezerroGritando mamãeEsse papo meu tá qualquer coisaE você tá pra lá de Teerã

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RAPTE-ME, CAMALEOACAETANO VELOSO

Rapte-me camaleoaAdapte-me a uma cama boaCapte-me uma mensagem à toaDe um quasar pulsando lôaInterestelar canoa...

Leitos perfeitosSeus peitos direitosMe olham assimFino menino me inclinoPro lado do sim...

Rapte-meMe adapte-meMe capte-meIt’s up to meCoraçãoSer querer serMerecer serUm camaleão...

Rapte-me camaleoaAdapte-me ao seuNe me quitte pas...

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SAMPACAETANO VELOSO

*homenagem à cidade de São Paulo, Brasil

Alguma coisa acontece no meu coraçãoque só quando cruzo a Ipiranga e a Avenida São Joãoé que quando eu cheguei por aqui eu nada entendida dura poesia concreta de tuas esquinasda deselegância discreta de tuas meninas

Ainda não havia para mim Rita Lee, a tua mais completa traduçãoAlguma coisa acontece no meu coraçãoque só quando cruzo a Ipiranga e a Avenida São João

Quando eu te encarei frente a frente não vi o meu rostochamei de mau gosto o que vide mau gosto, mau gostoé que Narciso acha feio o que não é espelhoe a mente apavora o que ainda não é mesmo velhonada do que não era antes quando não somos mutantes

E foste um difícil começoafasto o que não conheçoe quem vem de outro sonho feliz de cidadeaprende de pressa a chamar-te de realidadeporque és o avesso do avesso do avesso do avesso

Do povo oprimido nas filas, nas vilas, favelasda força da grana que ergue e destrói coisas belasda feia fumaça que sobe apagando as estrelaseu vejo surgir teus poetas de campos e espaçostuas oficinas de florestas, teus deuses da chuva

Panaméricas de Áfricas utópicas, túmulo do sambamais possível novo quilombo de Zumbie os novos baianos passeiam na tua garoae novos baianos te podem curtir numa boa.

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SAUDOSISMOCAETANO VELOSO

Eu, você, nós doisJá temos um passado, meu amorUm violão guardado, aquela florE outras mumunhas maisEu, você, JoãoGirando na vitrola sem pararE o mundo dissonante que nós doisTentamos inventar (3x)TentamosA felicidade (4x)Eu, você, depoisQuarta-feira de cinzas no paísE as notas dissonantes se integraramAo som dos imbecisSim, você, nós doisJá temos um passado, meu amorA bossa, a fossa, a nossa grande dorComo dois quadradõesLobo, lobo, lobo (4x)Eu e você, JoãoGirando na vitrola sem pararE eu fico comovido de lembrarO tempo e o somAh, como era bomMas chega de saudade, a realidadeÉ que aprendemos com JoãoPra sempre ser desafinadosSer desafinados (3x)SerChega de saudade...

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SÓ VOU GOSTAR DE QUEM GOSTA DE MIMROSSINI PINTO

De hoje em diante vou modificarO meu modo de vidaNaquele instante que você partiuDestruiu nosso amorAgora não vou mais chorarCansei de esperar, de esperar enfimE pra começar eu só vou gostarDe quem gosta de mim

Não quero com isso dizer que o amorNão é bom sentimentoA vida é tão bela quando a gente amaTem um amorPor isso é que eu vou mudarNão quero ficarChorando até o fimE pra não chorarEu só vou gostar de quem gosta de mim

Não vai ser fácil, eu bem seiEu já procurei, não encontrei meu bemA vida é assim, eu falo por mimPois eu vivo sem ninguém

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SONHOSPENINHA

Tudo era apenas uma brincadeiraE foi crescendo, crescendo, me absorvendoE de repente eu me vi assim completamente seuVi a minha força amarrada no seu passoVi que sem você não tem caminho,eu não me achoVi um grande amor gritar dentro de mim comoeu sonhei um diaQuando o meu mundo era mais mundoE todo mundo admitiaUma mudança muito estranhaMais pureza, mais carinho mais calma,mais alegriaNo meu jeito de me darQuando a canção se fez mais clara e mais sentidaQuando a poesia realmente fez folia em minha vidaVocê veio me falar dessa paixão inesperadaPor outra pessoaMas não tem revolta nãoEu só quero que você se encontreTer saudade até que é bomÉ melhor que caminhar vazioA esperança é um domQue eu tenho em mimEu tenho simNão tem desespero nãoVocê me ensinou milhões de coisasTenho um sonho em minhas mãosAmanhã será um novo diaCertamente eu vou ser mais feliz

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TERRACAETANO VELOSO

Quando eu me encontrava presoNas celas de uma cadeiaFoi que eu vi pela primeira vezAs tais fotografiasEm que apareces inteiraPorém lá não estavas nuaE sim coberta de nuvensTerra, terraPor mais distanteO errante naveganteQuem jamais te esqueceriaNinguém supõe a morenaDentro da estrela azuladaNa vertigem do cinemaManda um abraço pra ti, pequeninaComo se eu fosse o saudoso poetaE fosses a ParaíbaTerra, terraPor mais distanteO errante naveganteQuem jamais te esqueceriaEu estou apaixonado por uma meninaTerra, signo de elementoTerra, do mar se dizTerra à vistaTerra, para o pé firmezaTerra, para a mão caríciaOutros astros lhe são guiaTerra, terraPor mais distanteO errante naveganteQuem jamais te esqueceriaEu sou um leão de fogoSem ti me consumiriaA mim mesmo eternamenteE de nada valeriaAcontecer de eu ser genteE gente é outra alegriaDiferente das estrelas

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Terra, terraPor mais distanteO errante naveganteQuem jamais te esqueceriaDe onde nem tempo nem espaçoQue a força mande coragemPra gente te dar carinhoDurante toda a viagemQue realizas no nadaAtravés do qual carregasO nome da tua carneTerra, terraPor mais distanteO errante naveganteQuem jamais te esqueceriaNas sacadas dos sobradosDa velha São SalvadorHá lembranças de donzelasDo tempo do ImperadorTudo, tudo na BahiaFaz a gente querer bemA Bahia tem um jeitoTerra, terraPor mais distanteO errante naveganteQuem jamais te esqueceria

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VIDA BOAFAUSTO NILO / ARMANDINHO

Lua no marVendo a canoa passearA vida boa passa do real que háCoraçãoSerá que tá boa?Na paz, depoisDepois da pazEu quero pazAonde o sonho vai, meu sonho vaiMeus sonhos vãoE a parte quente de repente tá na mãoMeu coraçãoVocê que faz a minha vida variarTá na luz que passea pelo arPassa também pelo seu olharAi, morena, faça o que eu sonharQue mágica boa!Meu amor, cadê você?Olê, olê, oláÊ, você, olê, oláOlê, olá, que é pra canoa não virarE a vida boa na cabeça vadiarCoraçãoSerá que tá boa?Na paz, depoisDepois da pazEu quero maisAonde você vaiMeu sonho vai, meus sonhos vãoA parte quente que pressente a sua mãoMeu coraçãoVocê que faz a minha vida variarTá na luz que passa pelo arPassa também pelo meu, seu, olharAi, morena, abraça se eu chorarQue mágica doida!Meu amor, cadê você?Olê, olê, oláÊ, você, olê, olá

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VOCÊ É LINDACAETANO VELOSO

Fonte de melNuns olhos de gueixaKabuki, máscaraChoque entre o azulE o cacho de acáciasLuz das acáciasVocê é mãe do solA sua coisa é toda tão certaBeleza espertaVocê me deixa a rua desertaQuando atravessaE não olha pra trás

LindaE sabe viverVocê me faz felizEsta canção é só pra dizerE dizVocê é lindaMais que demaisVocê é linda simOnda do mar do amorQue bateu em mim

Você é forteDentes e músculosPeitos e lábiosVocê é forteLetras e músicasTodas as músicasQue ainda hei de ouvirNo AbaetéAreias e estrelasNão são mais belasDo que vocêMulher das estrelasMina de estrelasDiga o que você quer

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Você é lindaE sabe viverVocê me faz felizEsta canção é só pra dizerE dizVocê é lindaMais que demaisVocê é linda simOnda do mar do amorQue bateu em mim

Gosto de verVocê no seu ritmoDona do carnavalGosto de terSentir seu estiloIr no seu íntimoNunca me faça mal

LindaMais que demaisVocê é linda simOnda do mar do amorQue bateu em mimVocê é lindaE sabe viverVocê me faz felizEsta canção é só pra dizerE diz

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VOCÊ É MINHACaetano Veloso

Desde o tempo em que você andavaQue sem pensarBrinco de repetirVocê é minhaMinhaE não desse aíMas naquele tempo eu não sabiaEm Que isso é que dissiparia trevaEm que o amorLançou meu coraçãoVocê é minhaNinguém se atrevaPorque nós dois somos um time campeãoVocê comandaEu sigo e protestoMas vamos onde ninguém vaiAmplos se espantaO alcance do gestoPor terra é se a tenda não caiVocê me ensinaEu finjo que aprendoOs truques da grana e do amorOuve os batuquesMas muitos se enganaQuem crê que está lendo que adivinhaHoje que você é a rainhaDo meu velho e vasto estranho reinoFaço ecoarOs pontos cardeaisVocê é minhaMinhaE de ninguém maisEu próprio só aos poucos desfaçoAs redes de enigmas desse laçoDentro de nósE a minha voz redizVocê é minha

“TUDO ERA APENAS UMA BRINCADEIRAE FOI CRESCENDO, CRESCENDO, ME ABSORVENDOE DE REPENTE EU ME VI ASSIM COMPLETAMENTE SEUVI A MINHA FORÇA AMARRADA NO SEU PASSOVI QUE SEM VOCÊ NÃO TEM CAMINHO,EU NÃO ME ACHO (...)”

“(...) VOCÊ VEIO ME FALAR DESSA PAIXÃO INESPERADAPOR OUTRA PESSOAMAS NÃO TEM REVOLTA NÃOEU SÓ QUERO QUE VOCÊ SE ENCONTRETER SAUDADE ATÉ QUE É BOMÉ MELHOR QUE CAMINHAR VAZIO”

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173LOVE LIFE

NOTA DE AUTOR

“Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.” - Arthur RubinsteinSomos aquilo que vemos, que ouvimos, que aprendemos, que dizemos, que fazemos, aquilo que gostamos e admiramos e até o que comemos. Procuro, nas coisas que faço e consumo, encontrar uma estabilidade e um caminho que me dará respostas acerca do certo e do errado, do bom e do mau e até do que me faz feliz e realizada. Elas vão-me identificar e auxiliar a fazer escolhas e a formular opiniões. As expectativas que cada um tem da vida e a forma como cada um a encara e encara os outros vem, directa ou indirectamente, aliada a aquilo que apreciamos, amamos, detestamos ou experimentamos.

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LOMOGRAFIAWWW.LOMOGRAFIAPORTUGAL.COM

O QUE É A LOMOGRAFIA?

“Corria o ano de 1982 e o mundo ainda estava em plena Guerra Fria. Na URSS, o general Igor Petrowitsch Kornitzky, do Ministério da In-dústria e da Defesa Soviético, ordenou ao director da empresa LOMO, Michael Pantiloff, a produção maciça de máquinas fotográficas peque-nas, robustas e fáceis de usar. O general amante da fotografia, Tinha-se deixado encantar por uma pequena máquina japonesa, muito resis-tente e cujas lentes eram de qualidade excepcional. A ideia era produzir Lomos baratas para que estas se tornassem verdadeiros instrumentos de propaganda, Com todas as famílias da URSS a documentarem am-plamente, graças a elas, o estilo de vida soviético.A Lomo Kompact Automat foi produzida em série e vendida não só na União Soviética, mas tembém em países como o Vietname, a Ale-manha de Leste e Cuba.

A "Lomomania" propriamente dita começa em Praga em 1991, quan-do dois jovens vienenses, de férias na capital da República Checa, descobriram a máquina Lomo. Começaram então a fotografar tudo, muitas vezes sem sequer olhar através da objectiva. De regresso a casa, o fascínio dos dois fotógrafos pela cor, a luz e a qualidade das imagens (focadas ou desfocadas) foi tão contagioso que rapidamente a moda das Lomo se espalhou entre os jovens da cidade.Em 1995 nascia em Viena, na Áustria, a Sociedade Lomográfica e a primeira LomoEmbaixada, com o objectivo de impedir o desapareci-mento das pequenas máquinas fotográficas russas, uma vez que a fá-brica de São Petersburgo tinha acabado com a produção.

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A Sociedade Lomográfica organizou uma série de vendas de Lomos no âmbito de diversos eventos culturais, que serviram para afirmar o valor artístico da Lomografia.

A arte de fotografar com uma Lomo consiste em fotografar ao acaso, de forma imprevisível. A Lomografia não é uma fotografia encenada, produzida; é uma fotografia do quotidiano.

Um dos grandes projectos da Sociedade Lomográfica em colaboração com as várias embaixadas espalhadas por mais de 50 cidades em todo o mundo, É a constituição do LomoWordArchive, um registo visual, à escala mundial, graças às fotografias do lomógrafos de todo o mundo.

Desde o lançamento da Lomo em Lisboa a 11 de Dezembro de 2000 já foram organizadas várias exposições, festas, concursos lomográficos, workshops, publicações e website, perpetuando a imagem colorida e descontraída deste género fotográfico. Lomomania, Lomografia, Lomógrafo tornaram-se expressões correntes nesta nova forma de fotografar.”

“DE REGRESSO A CASA, O FASCÍNIO DOS DOIS FOTÓGRAFOS PELA COR, A LUZ E A QUALIDADE DAS IMAGENS (FOCADAS OU DESFOCADAS) FOI TÃO CONTAGIOSO”

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LOMOGRAPHYWWW.LOMOGRAPHY.COM

What the hell is Lomography?

It was in the early 1990s when two students in Vienna, Austria, dis-covered a small enigmatic Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Au-tomat, and started a new style of artistic experimental photography of unorthodox snapshots. In the blink of an eye the Lomographic mes-sage spread around the planet and people from North to South were screaming for Lomo LC-A’s. So they hopped on a plane, flew to St. Petersburg and negotiated a contract for the worldwide distribution of this fantastic little camera. Then everything happened quickly for Lomography. We set up the 10 golden rules as our guiding princi-pals, held numerous exhibitions, world congresses, parties and events. Mounted groundbreaking collaborations and projects, installed lomog-raphy.com as our communication hub, developed new products, films and accessories all while opening up Lomography Gallery Stores in me-tropolises worldwide.

What started out spontaneously as an artistic approach to photog-raphy in the Vienna underground scene developed into Lomography becoming an international socio-cultural movement using photogra-phy as a creative approach to communicating, absorb and capturing the world. Today we are a globally active organization dedicated to experimental and creative visual expression, a playful combination of lo-tech and hi-tech and the amalgamation of a cultural institution with a commercial photographic and design company focussing entirely on the unique imagery, style and approach of analogue photography and its further development.

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The 10 golden rules of Lomography

On this website we, an approximate Million of Lomographers world-wide, are creating the biggest ever-growing and ongoing snapshot portrait of the planet consisting of the wackiest, most exciting and most impossible little sights and moments of our time. Lomography is happening in the here and now, in the minds and shutters of Lomogra-phers around the planet and in the analogue universe that, if anything, we are only starting to explore.

At the very base of this lie the 10 golden rules that define our philoso-phy and approach towards photography. Memorise them, recite them by heart, or break all the rules; whichever way, be ready to throw all your inhibitions about photography to the wind.

1. TAKE YOUR CAMERA EVERYWHERE YOU GO2. USE IT ANY TIME – DAY AND NIGHT3. LOMOGRAPHY IS NOT AN INTERFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE, BUT PART OF IT4. TRY THE SHOT FROM THE HIP5. APPROACH THE OBJECTS OF YOUR LOMOGRAPHIC DESIRE AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE6. DON’T THINK (WILLIAM FIREBRACE)7. BE FAST8. YOU DON’T HAVE TO KNOW BEFOREHAND WHAT YOU CAPTURED ON FILM9. AFTERWARDS EITHER10. DON’T WORRY ABOUT ANY RULES

LOMOGRAPHY PRODUCTS

Lomographic products are all characterized by the following traits: they are practical and sensual, they look good, they’re friendly, inexpensive, sexy, un-political, a tad intellectual (but not too high-brow) and distrib-uted worldwide. Their sole purpose is to do nothing other than serve the daily, thousandfold desires of Lomographic creative expression!

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Our product collection began with the incredible Lomo LC-A whose success let us keep the iron hot and striking with a steady stream of tasty and stimulating products. Our camera assortment has grown to include an assortment of offbeat optics that produce their own unique and incredible images: the medium format Diana+ and Lubitel 166+, the irresistible Diana Mini, our Instax products, devastating Colorsplash items, the stunning Fisheye camera, multi-lensed cameras such as the SuperSampler and Oktomat and last but not least, the Horizon pan-oramic cameras, provide a range of formats for intense Lomographic output. Alongside these creative tools you’ll find one of the most com-prehensive offerings of film in the world and a full line of publications, bags, fashion and accessories; thereby rounding out an entire Lomo-graphic lifestyle of irresistible items.

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HOW PHELPS MADE SWIMMING HISTORYALICE PARK / BEIJING

Article from the Times Magazine, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008

On Aug. 10, a few hours after Michael Phelps won his first gold medal and set his first world record in Beijing, he called his mom. “It seemed quite unusual,” Debbie Phelps, who was traveling back to her hotel with daughters Hillary and Whitney after watching Michael’s race, told TIME. “He just wanted to hear our voices. I think it was important for him to talk to his mom and sisters at that time.”

They chatted — he asked about their trip to China — and Debbie, fully aware of Michael’s challenging program to come, worried about whether her boy had tired himself out by swimming so fast so early. “I don’t know why I asked; he knows what he needs to do to conserve his energy,” she said.

They didn’t hear from him again until after the 200-m freestyle on Aug. 12. Debbie missed his first call because her phone was buried in her bag. Phelps texted her, letting her know he was trying to reach them. “We were giving him support, letting him know how proud we were and that we stand behind him whatever the outcome might be,” said Debbie. Sometimes, apparently, even Olympians just need their mother.And the outcome, it turned out, was record-breaking: Today, Phelps

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made Olympic history by winning his eighth gold medal at these Games and becoming the greatest Olympic athlete ever. With a 50.15-sec. butterfly leg in the 4 x 100-m medley relay, Phelps, along with the U.S. team, set a new world record — and Phelps set a new bar for Olympic athletes to clear.

Just minutes earlier, 41-year-old Dara Torres, the oldest swimmer ever to compete in the Olympics, lapped the second-fastest time of the year in the 50-m freestyle and earned a silver medal, 0.01 sec. behind the winner. Along with her two other silver medals in relay races, her total Olympic haul is an impressive 12, just four shy of Phelps’ 16.

Not a bad day for swimming history — and no one knows that better than the history makers. “For this to happen, everything had to fall into perfect place,” Phelps said. “If we had to do this again, I don’t know if it would happen exactly the way we wanted it to.”

The men’s relay closed out what will become one of the most mem-orable Games in swimming, with the U.S. leading the Water Cube medal count at 31, 12 of them gold — better than Athens’ collection of 28, though not quite up to the horde of 43 that Mark Spitz’s team amassed in 1972. But none of the athletes in the pool, American or otherwise, stood a chance of eclipsing Phelps. Taehwan Park of Korea and Kosuke Kitajima of Japan both snared Olympic titles and set a new standard for Asian swimmers at the élite level, but no other Olympian could come close to the frenzy that Phelps generated in the Water Cube, luring luminaries from two Presidents (George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush) to LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, who attended not just one but several of Phelps’ races in Beijing.

“I am so blessed, so privileged to be here to watch him swim live,” said Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands. “He made me cry — tears of joy.” And this from a two-time Olympic champion and Olympic record holder.

For Debbie, the feat is especially momentous. When Michael was in grade school, a teacher told her that her son would never be successful because he couldn’t focus in the classroom. It turned out that he had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and while it made concentrat-ing in class difficult, racing in the pool was a different story. “I thought maybe he’s not as focused in the schoolhouse, but I saw a love and passion for swimming in him at a young age,” said Debbie, who works

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“I THINK THAT EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE AS LONG AS YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT AND YOU PUT THE WORK AND TIME INTO IT. I THINK YOUR MIND REALLY CONTROLS EVERYTHING.”MICHAEL PHELPS

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as an educator and school principal. “He could be there for hours dur-ing a swim meet.”That singular determination was obvious at the Water Cube this week. In race after race, setting record after record, Phelps kept his body and mind trained on a set of goals that only he and coach Bob Bowman were privy to for these Games. While he still won’t reveal the specifics, he did admit that he wrote them down — the first time he has docu-mented his mission at a meet — and that “it all happened this week.”

When you’re talented enough to break world records nearly every time you race, and do it not just once or twice but eight times in a single meet, with the entire world watching, then half your battle is not against the swimmers in the other lanes but against your own demons, the ones that creep up when you hear your name announced over the loudspeaker or when you take your position on the blocks, ready to plunge into the water.

And nobody knows that better than Bowman. Having coached Phelps since he was 11, Bowman was the first to recognize the boy’s talent, and he laid out a detailed plan to Phelps’ surprised parents for making their son an Olympic champion. In the years since, Bowman, a psychol-ogy major, has become a master manipulator of Phelps, knowing just what buttons to push to propel his swimmer to another world record.Take Saturday, for example. Prior to the 100-m butterfly event, Bow-man thought the race might be close and figured Phelps could use an extra boost. So he passed along a piece of information that was news to Phelps: that his closest rival in the 100-m butterfly, Serbian Milorad Cavic, had told the media that he thought Phelps losing the race would be good for swimming. The Spitz record of seven golds in a single Games is a hallowed one, and one that has stood for 36 years — so it’s understandable that some swimmers are loath to see it broken. Plus, Cavic figured, leaving that eighth gold dangling for the next Games would keep people interested in swimming.

Not the smartest move, Cavic. Phelps, notorious for feeding off doubt-ers and critics of his feats and fame, said he “got excited” by those comments, and managed to drive to the wall 0.01 sec. ahead of the Serb. Enough said.

If the nine days of competition were hard on Phelps, they might have been even harder on his teammates, overshadowed by “the Quest” and yet, in three relay races, a crucial part of Phelps’ historic effort. “Of

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course we are all paying attention to what is going on,” said Aaron Peirsol, who swam the backstroke leg of the relay. “But by no means does one person on the team take precedence over any other during a meet like this.” Easy to say but harder to believe when Phelps is ush-ered off to his own press conferences and when nearly all of the ques-tions posed to each swimmer who wins a medal revolve around Phelps.

As for the United Nations of athletes filling the stands in the Water Cube today, most were there to watch one man and one man only. “I think 90% of the swimmers, when they are done with their event, just come here to watch Michael Phelps,” said Sandeep Sejwal, a breast-stroke swimmer from India. “He deserves all the attention he gets,” said Genaro Prono, another breaststroke swimmer, from Paraguay. “Because everything that he does is also better for us.”

Andrew Lauterstein, the Australian butterfly specialist who finished third to Phelps on Saturday, recognized the significance of being part not just of swimming but of sports history while he was on the med-als stand with Phelps. “I was saying to myself, ‘All right, Andrew, this is pretty special, so look around and try to remember this moment standing next to the world’s greatest swimmer, someone who is trying to re-create history,’ “ he said. He wasn’t the only medalist who was awestruck. “I feel privileged to be in an era with such a great swim-mer,” said Lauterstein’s teammate Leisel Jones, the breaststroke gold medalist. “I couldn’t care less about my swims; winning eight gold medals is pretty impressive.”

So he impresses the world’s top swimmers, but what impresses the world’s top swimmer the most? All Phelps could talk about after his historic achievement was the fact that two of his races were broadcast live, at a baseball stadium and in a football arena, back home. “I want to raise the bar for the sport of swimming as high as it can get in the U.S.,” he said. “We’ve come a long way; I heard that in Ravens sta-dium [in Baltimore, Phelps’ hometown], they were watching the 400 medley relay live with 70,000 people. I heard that at the Cincinnati Reds game yesterday, they showed the 100 fly live. I heard there was an announcement at Yankee Stadium. People all over the place are saying that if you go out to eat and the TV is on, swimming is on the TV. Four years ago, there was no way that would ever happen. I think the sport of swimming can go even farther.”

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But maybe only if Phelps stays in the water, which he says he will, at least through the London Games in 2012. While he is eager to try out a new swimming program that might feature more of the mar-quee events like sprints, he won’t make any decisions about that until he comes back from a long vacation. “When we train every day, and sometimes we do sets or workouts we don’t like, Bob says it’s putting money in the bank, and at the end of the year we’ll be able to with-draw,” said Phelps. “I guess we put a lot of money in the bank over the last four years, and we withdrew pretty much every penny. So after Bob and I both take a little break, it’ll be time to start re-depositing.”

London would be Phelps’ third Games, a mere trifle compared with teammate Dara Torres’ fifth trip under the rings. Torres, who is now the second-fastest woman in the world in the 50-m free, continued to prove that age is no limit, missing the gold by the same tiny margin with which Phelps won the 100-m butterfly. “That was awesome,” said de Bruijn, of Torres’ race. “I’ve got so much respect for her. She was one of my biggest rivals when I was still swimming. She quit for many years, she had a baby, and then to come back — she is a role model for a lot of swimmers, especially older swimmers.”

The years have done nothing to dampen Torres’ aggressive spirit. As remarkable as her finish was, she was haunted by how close she came to winning gold, which would have been her first individual Olympic title. “I am very competitive, and I hate to lose,” she said. “I told my coach it’s hard for me to understand I swam the perfect race and lost by 0.01 sec. He said, ‘Look, you went into the Olympics fifth in the world, and now you’ve got a silver medal.’ “ Three of them, actually, which is certain to impress her 2-year-old daughter Tessa, back home. “After 2000, I didn’t have anything to go home to, but now I have my daughter to go home to. I get home on Tuesday, and I’m taking my daughter to school on Thursday, so I’ve got a list of school supplies I have to get,” said Torres, back in mom mode after her Olympic feat.

Debbie Phelps is in mom mode too. “I tried to put one word to these past nine days, and there’s just not one word that would be character-istic of what Michael just did,” she said. “Every aspect of watching him compete, perform as an athlete, and carry himself as a young man is heartwarming as a mother.” It’s a pretty remarkable example for those of us outside the family as well.

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MORE QUESTIONS WITH MICHAEL PHELPSTIMES

www.times.com,Thursday, Apr. 19, 2007

TIME’s interview with the Olympic swimmer continues on Time.com. Read these extra questions with Michael Phelps.

DO YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC PRIOR TO YOUR RACE TO GET YOUR-SELF IN THE RIGHT MOOD TO CRUSH YOUR OPPONENTS? IF SO, WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO? — LANCE SCADDEN, MADISON, WISC.I listen to hip hop and rap to sort of help me get focused, to get ready to get up and do what I’m there do. It helps me to tune everything out, and take one step at time. A lot of the new stuff is what I have on my MP3 player. I don’t really have any favorites, but right now, it might be Young Jeezy; I just listen to whatever comes on.

HOW DO YOU CONTEND WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CHAL-LENGE OF COUN-TING LAPS OR LENGTHS? WHAT DOES GOD MEAN TO YOU? — PAUL CASEY, DUBLIN, IRELANDWhen I race, I don’t think about it, it just happens. When I workout, I just think of it as something you do and something I’ve done the past 14 years, so guess it’s just a natural thing your body is just used to.What does God mean to me? That’s the question? I guess I was made

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this way for some reason, and I’ve been able to find the talent I have, and I’ve been able to use it, so I’m grateful for that. I believe in God; I’m not saying I’m highly religious. I used to always go to church on holidays, but I don’t go much any more.WHAT DO YOU EAT FOR BREAKFAST? — LOUISE DEMARTINI, PRO-VO, UTAHIt depends. Usually before practice, cereal or oatmeal. After practice, it’s eggs, and a bunch of protein.

WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE? — CLARA LIND, WAUSAU, WIThe craziest thing I’ve ever done? I live a pretty conservative life, so I probably really haven’t done anything crazy.

TELL US ABOUT DATING. DO YOU OR WOULD YOU DATE OTHER SWIMMERS? — KAY CLAUDE, MUNCIE, IN[Laughs.] If I do, it’s kept on the down low. I try to separate my personal life from swimming.

HOW DID IT FEEL TO SEE THE SWIM MEETS BROADCAST ON A MAJOR NETWORK DURING PRIME TIME IN AUSTRALIA? AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CHANCES OF SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAPPENING IN THE US? — MIKY SPARKE, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIAThat’s something I think all us would love to happen in the U.S. But it is hard. There are so many other high profile sports, like football, basket-ball and baseball, that it’s tough to put swimming events on prime time because other sports have so much time. Our best chance to be able to have that, will be for Olympic Games next year in Beijing.

HOW HIGH A PRIORITY IS EDUCATION FOR YOU? I ASK THIS BECAUSE SWIMMERS - IN CONTRAST TO FOOTBALL PLAYERS - CAN’T LIVE THE REST OF THEIR LIFE OF THE MONEY THE GET FROM THEIR SPORT. — CHARLOTTE HANSEN, DENMARKI do plan on getting a college education. That’s one thing I would like to do. Right now, swimming is the #1 priority for me. I’m not going to have this career forever, so I think I should take advantage of what I have, what I’m possibly capable of doing over the next year and years to come.

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MY DAD IS A DEDICATED MASTERS SWIMMER IN ANN ARBOR WHO HAS BEEN SWIMMING HARD EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS. HE IS PUSHING 60 NOW, AND STILL PUSHES HIMSELF TO THE LIMIT IN EVERY WORKOUT. HOW CAN I CON-VINCE HIM TO BACK OFF? — LAURA ARNESON, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAHRight now, I’m taking it easy so even elite swimmers do take small breaks and allow their muscles to recover from everything. I will say swimming is a great form of exercise, and you do get a lot out of it. Good for him that he’s still going strong, and able to hop in the water, able to do what he loves. It’s a fun sport, so I’m glad he’s still doing it.

“I DO PLAN ON GETTING A COLLEGE EDUCATION. THAT’S ONE THING I WOULD LIKE TO DO. RIGHT NOW, SWIMMING IS THE #1 PRIORITY FOR ME.”

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“SWIMMING IS NORMAL FOR ME. I’M RELAXED. I’M COMFORTABLE, AND I KNOW MY SURROUNDINGS.

IT’S MY HOME.”

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Nuovo cinema Paradiso is a 1988 Italian film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It was internationally released as Cinema Paradiso in France, Spain, the UK and the U.S.

It was originally released in Italy at 155 minutes but poor box office performance in its native country led to it being shortened to 123 minutes for international release. It was an instant success. This inter-national version won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival[1] and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 2002, the director’s cut 173-minute version was released (known in the U.S. as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version).

It stars Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leon-ardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio. It was produced by Franco Cristaldi and Giovanna Romagnoli, and the music was by Ennio Mor-ricone along with his son Andrea Morricone.

Told largely in flashback to childhood years, it tells the story of the return to his native Sicilian village of a successful film director Salvatore for the funeral of his old friend Alfredo, who was the projectionist at the local “Cinema Paradiso”. Ultimately, Alfredo serves as a wise father figure to his young friend who only wishes the best to see him succeed, even if it means breaking his heart in the process.

The film intertwines sentimentality with comedy, and nostalgia with pragmaticism. It explores issues of youth, coming of age, and reflec-tions (in adulthood) about the past. The imagery in each scene can be said to reflect Salvatore’s idealised memories about his childhood. Cinema Paradiso is also a celebration of films; as a projectionist, young Salvatore (a.k.a Totò) develops the passion for films that shapes his life path in adulthood.

NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO

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(...)

3I CINEMA PARADISO. INT. EVENING A violent spurt of flames leaps out of the mouth of the plaster lion’s head, into the darkness broken by the screams of people rushing for the exits.

32 SQUARE AND CINEMA PARADISO ENTRANCE. EXT. EVENING The crowd streaks out of the movie house, enveloped in a cloud of black smoke. CROWD Heeeelp! Run for your lives!!! In the general panic, SALVATORE tries in vain to get inside, elbows his way towards the street with the stairs leading to the projection booth. The audience clashes against him, knocks him to the ground, almost trampling him underfoot. He is suddenly seized by a superhuman force; gets up, claws his way desperately ahead, with people falling on top of him and to the floor. He finally succeeds, starts up the stairs...

NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO GIUSEPPE TORNATORE

The Script, 1989

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33 CINEMA PARADISO. STAIRS AND PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. EVENING The place is filled with smoke. The air is suffocating. SALVATORE streaks up the stairs, gasping for breath. The projection booth is en-veloped inflames. ALFREDO’s body on the floor, burning. SALVATORE moves quickly, throws a blanket over his shoulders, drags him by the feet over to the stairs, as boxes and other objects fall on him. Using the same blanket, he stamps out the flames that have seared ALFREDO’S clothes. With the force of desperation, he drags him further down the stairs which have been reached by the smoke but not by the flames. ALFREDO doesn’t move, his face is burnt. SALVATORE looks at him and only now is panic-stricken, lets out a terrified shriek, like a wounded colt. SALVATORE Alfredo! Heeeelp! Help!!!

34 CINEMA PARADISO. INT. EVENING The plaster lion looks like a dragon spitting fire and smoke. The statue of the Virgin Mary is also in flames. And the movie screen.

35 SQUARE AND CINEMA PARADISO. EXT. EVENING The fire has been put out. Nothing remains of the movie house but the skeleton. Everything has gone up in smoke. People stand around, dismayed. They gather around the PRIEST, who is at once grieved and shocked, to express their solidarity and comfort. VOICES What a pity! Poor Alfredo! What a terrible thing!! Cheer up, Father, is there something we can do?’ VILLAGE IDIOT (Laughing) Burnt up...Burnt up.

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PRIEST What’ll we do now! The town will have to get along without movies! Who’s got the money to rebuild it? CICCIO SPACCAFICO, the man who won the Sisal pools, comes up, dressed in style. He looks up at the charred cinema. It looks like a battlefield after an enemy attack. From the smoke and ashes to...

36 CINEMA PARADISO. EXT. EVENING ...The great lighted sign of the CINEMA PARADISO . The movie house has been rebuilt. New facade. New billboards. There are people mov-ing about the entrance. It is the evening of the inauguration...

37 CINEMA PARADISO. INT. EVENING The lobby is crowded with people, authorities, special guests. There is the MAYOR, FATHER ADELFIO and the new owner, CICCIO SPAC-CAFICO, dressed to the teeth. The MAYOR cuts the ribbon. Flashbulbs pop. Clapping. GUESTS Cheers’ Congratulations, Don Ciccio! The procession advances towards the stairs leading into the theatre. FATHER ADELFIO, with a nostalgic sigh, blesses the lobby, then the corridor. Lastly, the new auditorium, which resounds with toasts and cheers. AUDIENCE To the Cinema Paradiso! The PRIEST sprinkles the new seats, the walls, the screen with holy water... 38 CINEMA PARADISO. PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. EVENING Now FATHER ADELFIO is blessing the brand-new projection booth. He also blesses the new projectionist: SALVATORE. He is very nervous, but serious, self-possessed. His worried-looking mother is also there for the occasion. The PRIEST turns to SPACCAFICO.

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PRIEST How’d you solve his being under age? SPACCAFICO I took out a license as projectionist, thanks to friends down at the guild offices. But I don’t know a thing about it. Officially, I do the job...(Smiling at Salvatore)...but Toto earns the money. PRIEST Fine. (To SALVATORE) Always be careful, my boy. Don’t ever go to sleep. Be sure another ac-cident doesn’t happen. Do everything poor Alfredo taught you. And may God bless you. SALVATORE nods his head seriously, assuming a responsible expression. His mother kisses the PRIEST’s hand. MARIA Thanks, Father. Thanks. SPACCAFICO And now enough of this gloomy atmosphere. Life goes on! I want to see you happy and smiling!

(...)

6I CHURCH.INT.EVENING Before the high altar, the Virgin Mary in tears clutches three spikes inher hand. And beside her is another statue Christ descended from thecross. MEN and WOMEN stand in line to kiss Christ’s wounds. Many people are sitting between the pews. SALVATORE helps ALFREDO take a seat, and at that moment catches sight at the far end of ELENA on her way to the confessional.

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She kneels down on one side, just as FATHER ADELFIO comes out of the middle booth and goes to the altar to say something to the sacris-tan. SALVATORE’S eyes light up. He has had a brainstorm. He leans over and whispers something into ALFREDO’s ear. ALFREDO nods his head. SALVATORE is so happy that he gives him a pat on the cheek, like a caress. Then he hurries over to the PRIEST. Says something in a low voice, gesticulates with some agitation, points to the pew where ALFREDO is sitting. The PRIEST tries to say he can’t now, but SALVATORE insists, and wins. The PRIEST goes over to ALFREDO, leans over. PRIEST What is it, Alfredo? Right now, of all times! ALFREDO (In a grave voice) Father Adelfio, I have a very serious doubt that is torturing my soul. And you’ve got to help me, because I’ve lost all peace of mind... SALVATORE watches from a distance. He sees the PRIEST put on an alarmed expression and then sit down beside ALFREDO. Everything’s ready. He creeps over to the confessional. ELENA is there, kneeling down waiting for the PRIEST to arrive. In an instant, without anyone noticing, SALVATORE pops inside the confessional. He shuts the little door below and draws the purple curtain. On the other side of grille, only a few inches away, those eyes that keep him awake all night. ELENA Father, I have sinned... SALVATORE (In a low voice) We’ll talk about that later. ELENA (Surprised)But...who... SALVATORE (Interrupting her) Sssssh, Be quiet, pretend everything’s normal. I’m Salvatore. ELENA’S eyes pop in amazement.

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ELENA What are you doing here?Meanwhile ALFREDO and the PRIEST continue their unusual and ani-mated discussion.The PRIEST is appalled, crosses himself. PRIEST But Alfredo, what you’re saying is horrifying! ALFREDO I know. But take the-miracle of the loaves and fishes, for example! I think about it a lot...How is it possible for... In the confessional, the whispered conversation between SALVATORE and ELENA continues. ELENA (Annoyed) There was a terrible rumpus at home. My mother told my father. And how could you have mistaken my voice?! SALVATORE is mortified, on tenterhooks, keeps an eye on ALFREDO and the PRIEST through a crack in the curtain. SALVATORE Forgive me, Elena. It was stupid of me. But I had to talk to you. She looks up at him and her eyes are even more beautiful in the can-dlelight. This time SALVATORE finds the courage to speak to her calmly, with determination. That grille probably helps him, allows him to see without being seen. SALVATORE You’re so beautiful, Elena...That’s what I wanted to tell you. When I meet you, I can’t put two words together because...you give me the shivers. I don’t know what you do in these situations, what you’re sup-posed to say. It’s the first time. But I think I’m in love with you.

ELENA gazes through the grille at the two shining specks of his eyes. She is bewildered by that flood of passion. At that moment, an OLD WOMAN kneels down on the other side of the confessional and her face appears behind the grille.

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OLD WOMAN Father, I have sinned...(SALVATORE turns lo her, instinctively.) SALVATORE I absolve you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Go in peace, my daughter. (And he slams the panel shut in her face. ELENA is barely able to con-trol her laughter.) When you laugh, you’re even more beautiful. She pulls herself together again and puts on a serious, but tender look. ELENA Salvatore, it’s awfully sweet of you. And even though I don’t know you, I like you. But...I’m not in love with you. For SALVATORE, it’s as if a knife had plunged straight into his heart. He sits there gazing into her eyes, at the beauty mark on her lip, without moving. Then through the crack sees ALFREDO and the PRIEST con-versing nervously, God knows what they’re saying. And he turns back to her. SALVATORE I don’t care. I’ll wait. ELENA For what? SALVATORE For you to fall in love with me too. Listen carefully. Every night, when I get off work, I’ll come and wait beneath your window. Every night. When you change your mind, open your window. That’s all. I’ll understand... He smiles at her. She is upset by those exaggerated words, but also intrigued.The PRIEST has meanwhile solved the problem that ALFREDO has made up as an excuse. PRIEST (Exhausted) You understand now? You see it clearly?

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ALFREDO (Hypocritically)Oh yes, father. Now everything’s clear. PRIEST And the next time don’t go around saying such heresy. You survived the fire at the movie house. But no one can save you from the fire of Hell!

62 SQUARE AND ELENA’S HOUSE. EXT. NIGHT Sweet poignant music accompanies SALVATORE’s long waits beneath the window of ELENA’S room... A warm early summer night. The last spectators wander off into the streets. The VILLAGE IDIOT makes his rounds of the square.SALVATORE is beneath her window. He waits. The shutters are open,but not the windows with the curtains. ELENA peers at him through adark crack... Fade to:A rainy night. SALVATORE is back there again. Determined,headstrong. A dog keeps him company, taking shelter under an overhanging roof. The window is shut... Fade to:SALVATORE’S hand adds another check to an endless row of checks onthe calendar. A check a day...

Fade to:Another night. Wind. The window is still shut. SALVATORE’s eyes arethe eyes of a lovesick man prepared to face the hardest battles, just towin, just to conquer his loved one. She peeks at him through the crack,but he can’t see her... Fade to:The paces of the calendar are covered with checks. Several monthshave gone by. SALVATORE adds a check on the last page, on 30 December. Tomorrow night will be...New Year’s Eve. The streets are empty. Loud merry voices can be heard coming from the houses. Old discarded ob-jects hail down from balconies. Firecrackers explode here and there. SALVATORE is there in the same old place, as usual. The shutters are

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open, but not the windows, and all is darkness inside. SALVATORE is wrapped in a large overcoat and stamps his feet to keep warm... 63 SALVATORES HOUSE. GIANCALDO. INT. NIGHT Toasts are being prepared in SALVATORE’s house. MARIA is therewith her daughter, LIA, then ALFREDO with his wife, ANNA.SALVATORE is the only one missing for the “family” to be complete.The bottle of spumante and the Christmas cake are ready. The radio ison with the New Year’s Eve programme. MARIA (Nervously) But why hasn’t Toto shown up? The movie house is closed at this hour! ALFREDO has a know-all look. He tries to put her mind at rest. ALFREDO He had to do something for me... Over the radio, music and merrymaking 64 ELENA’S HOUSE.EXT.NIGHT More sounds of merrymaking, coming from ELENA’s house. SALVA-TORE listens to it, sees the shadows of her parents and relatives, maybe even hers, ready to celebrate, welcome in the New Year. But further on, that window remains dark and shut. SALVATORE gazes at it again. There is a new look in his eyes, like a gleam of hope. Maybe it’s the specialness of that night, maybe it’s the fire crackers, the festive atmo-sphere, but something tells him that’s going to be the right night. The night when she’ll open her window. In fact, a light suddenly goes on in the room. SALVATORE’S eyes sparkle, have already taken on the hue of victory. The window is pulled open, and his heart starts pounding like a drum. The music reaches its climax. Two hands come out. SALVATORE shuts his eyes for a moment, to hold back the flood of feeling. He opens them again and sees......The hands reach out and take hold of the shutters and pull them shut. The light goes out. It is midnight. An echoing voice does the countdown.

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RADIO VOICE Six, five, four, three, two, one, zero! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! And a roar of voices, shouts, explosions, fills the air. SALVATORE has re-mained standing there immobile, speechless. Disappointed. Defeated. 65 SALVATORE S HOUSE. GIANCALDO. INT. NIGHT At his house, glasses are about to be raised. There is a strange, tense merriment. MARIA is unable to conceal her concern, her presentiment. She glances at the door, hoping to see SALVATORE appear. ALFREDO (To Maria) There’s nothing to worry about. He’s probably with his friends. (To all) Let’s toast! EVERYBODY (Toasting) Here’s to you! Here’s to you! Happy New Year! MARIA For Toto too, here’s to you!! Happy New Year! ! Everybody echoes MARIA’S toast... 66 ELENA S HOUSE. EXT. NIGHT But SALVATORE is not happy in these first few minutes of the New Year. He feels hurt, humiliated, rejected. He walks off amidst the old discarded objects flying down from the terraces. That was his last night. He’s not showing up beneath that balcony any more. 67 CINEMA PARADISO. PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. AFTERNOON Outside there is a violent thunderstorm. The pounding of the rain and the rumbling of the thunder drown out the sound-track of the film be-ing shown. Two buckets are on the floor to catch the water dripping through the roof. SALVATORE is alone. For the first time he feels he hates the profession he’s got into. He is tearing up the calendar where he checked off the nights he spent waiting for ELENA. He tears it into

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a thousand pieces, as if trying to wipe out the traces of his grief. He is so absorbed in his thoughts that he doesn’t notice that someone has appeared at the top of the stairs and quietly entered the room. And now stands there watching him in silence. The thunder is deafening. That someone is ELENA. She comes up behind him, realizes he is think-ing about her. Whispers. ELENA Salvatore... Loud passionate music is heard on the monitor. SALVATORE turns and sees her as if in a dream. It is a sudden blow to the heart. The look on her face is wonderfully sweet, the look of somebody who knows she is madly loved and who now realizes at last that she is in love too. For SALVATORE it is an overwhelming, almost unbearable moment...A long passionate embrace that is never-ending. They are happy, cling to each other never to leave each other again. They spin around, end up against the wall where strips of film are hanging, the first-part endings and the trailers. Another intense look, their eyes locked...And it is their first kiss. A kiss at first timid, hesitant, almost clumsy, and then becomes resolute, poignant. Amidst the film strips dangling around and touching their young faces. Meanwhile the film has finished, the projector turns uselessly...Down below the screen is blank, the audience whistles...But SALVATORE hears nothing, neither the whistles nor the useless whirring of the reels in the projector. All he hears is her breathing, an he feels is the warmth of her skin.

68 VARIOUS SETTINGS. INT/EXT. DAY The happiest, most vivid moments SALVATORE and ELENA spendtogether:A country outing. They eat a lavish salad using the flat branches of theprickly pear for plates. A chase through an endless field of wheat.In the projection booth. A cake with seventeen lighted candles.SALVATORE and ELENA blow them out together. And then a kiss.

“ANNA : HE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY YOU CAME, TOTO. HE ALWAYS TALKED ABOUT YOU. ALWAYS! RIGHT TO THE END! HE WAS TERRIBLY FOND OF YOU...

(TEARS COME TO HER, SHE IS UNABLE TO SAY ANY MORE. SALVATORE GIVES HER A HUG, DEEPLY TOUCHED BY HER WORDS) ”

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69 ROAD AT THE EDGE OF TOWN.EXT. DAY SALVATORE is driving an old beaten-up Balilla he bought from acar-wrecker. ELENA sits beside him, having the time of her life. Theyroar with laughter. The car jolts, moves by fits and starts, jarred by theholes in the road, and besides SALVATORE is not such a hot driver. Shefon-dles him. ELENA (Ironically) You have a great future as a driver. If they don’t arrest you first!! SALVATORE That’s nothing to do with it, it’s the car that’s still being run in... He has barely finished the last sentence when the car gives asudden violent shudder. A sharp report. A cloud of white smoke issues from the motor. And the Balilla stops dead in its tracks. ELENA and SALVA-TORE cannot smother their wild laughter. They embrace. ELENA SO now how do we get home? Cut to: The two of them are standing beside the empty road, looking bored, as they have already been waiting a long time for someone to go by, a car, a wagon. When all at once a car comes around the bend, heading for town. SALVATORE and ELENA flag it down. The DRIVER slows down. The back door opens, a MAN gets out. An alarmed and startled look comes over ELENA’s face that man is her FATHER. She sees him stride over in a rage. He has almost reached SALVATORE, who tries lo be polite, to make the best of the situation. SALVATORE Hello, Dr Mendola...Hem... ELENA buries her face in her hands, so as not to see...

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70 CINEMA PARADISO. INT. EVENING SALVATORE has a bruise on his cheek and two Band-aids on his face.He got himself a good thrashing, and then some. The house is jammed,as on the great occasions. Curiosity is written all over the faces of theaudi-ence. But what they’re seeing is not a film, but an instalment ofDouble or Nothing. SALVATORE is standing by a teleprojector whichhas been set up in the central aisle of the balcony. It is a machine thatmakes it possible to project television show on the screen. ALFREDO issitting beside him. ALFREDO (In a low voice) Toto, are you pulling my leg or something? How is it possible to see this television without film? SALVATORE Just so, Alfredo. There isn’t any. And if you buy a television set, you can watch it at home, without any fuss... ALFREDO (Sceptically) Could be...But I don’t like thisbusiness. It smells fishy to me. ELENA is sitting in one corner of the balcony with her parents. Sitting beside her FATHER is the owner of the movie house, SPACCAFICO, who thanks him. SPACCAFICO (In a low voice) You see what a bright idea, Dr Mendola? But without the bank loan how could I have bought the machine? If we don’t get organized around here, in this day and age, we’ll meet the same end as the Punch and Judy shows!

ELENA is not very interested in the TV show. She sneaks a look at SAL-VATORE. From the looks on their faces, it is clear that things are not going very well. He gives her a nod, as if to say he wants to speak to her and that she should figure out some way! ELENA leans over to her MOTHER, whispers something into herear.

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7I CINEMA PARADISO. TOILET. INT. EVENING

ELENA’s MOTHER stands waiting in front of the women’s toilet,gazing at Mike Bongiorno emceeing the TV show in the distance. Inside the toilet, ELENA is standing on the toilet seat whispering to SALVATORE, who is standing on the 20ilet seat of the men’s toilet. Their eyes are barely able to peek over the flush tank which they haveuncovered. ELENA is worried. SALVATORE Could it be your father doesn’t like the work I do...That my family’s too poor...Is that it? She gives a nod of the head, but only faintly, so as no2 to wound his vulnerability. SALVATORE sighs. ELENA’S MOTHER (Off-screen)Elena! ELENA All right! ! (To Salvatore, in a whisper) For the moment it’s impossible to see each other...As soon as school is out, we’re going to go stay with friends in Tuscany. We’ll be there all summer...Maybe if you came up, we could meet in secret...

SALVATORE (Crestfallen) But we’re opening the outdoor movie theatre this summer. What will I do all this time without seeing you?! ELENA I’ll write to you every day. Don’t worry. I love you. The summer’ll be over and I’ll be back... They reach out to kiss each other. Who knows when they’ll be able to see each other again? ELENA’S MOTHER (Off-screen) Elena!

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ELENA climbs down, pulls the chain and walks off, leaving SALVATORE standing there on the toilet seat.

Summer has come. A bevy of barefoot children chase after the carts carrying the carters’ families to the beach to go swimming. SALVA-TORE, helped by the USHER, has finished loading the disassembled projector on to a wagon in order to carry it to the outdoor movie house. The USHER has hung a sign on the Cinema Paradiso to the ef-fect that ‘Showings to continue at the Imperia Arena’, and now climbs into the wagon. The horse moves off slowly and the monotonous clatter of its hoofs re-minds SALVATORE that the summer is going to be long this year, longer than ever. And he leans on the projector that totters and lurches from the jolting of the wheels. A cart carrying a cheerful and noisy family pulls up alongside the wagon. There are the MEN from the slaughter-house. They recognize SALVATORE. SLAUGHTER-HOUSE MAN Well, look who’s here!! Cecil B. De Mille! Hey, Toto!! When are you coming to shoot another film?!? And they laugh, with their gaping toothless mouths. SALVATORE doesn’t feel like joking, not even like answering. He looks away, so as not to see their leers. He wants to be by himself.

73 BEACH AND IMPERIA ARENA. EXT. DAY The beach is almost deserted, dotted here and there with groups of bathers. The carts and horses are scattered in the sand, near the Impe-ria Arena, where some WORKMEN are putting on the finishing touches for the new opening. The wagon arrives and SALVATORE and the USH-ER unload the projector.

74 BEACH. IMPERIA ARENA. PROJECTION BOOTH. EXT.EVENING A sultry evening. The jacklights of the octopus fishers twinkle on the-dark horizon. The sound-track of a comic film reverberates over the sea,the laughter of the audience mingles with the sound of the shal-low wave breaking on the rocks. A group of LITTLE BOYS in a boat

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pulls awayfrom shore. They join some more boats standing still in the water, all ofthem crammed with LITTLE BOYS all looking in the same direction...towards the screen of the open-air movie at the water’s edge. There is afunny scene. LITTLE BOYS All seats are sold out! Free entrance and payment on the way out!! Sssssh!! And they guffaw noisily. Their laughter is echoed by morelaughter, in the distance... ...the laughter of the Arena audience, scattered among themetal chairs. By dint of laughing, the people in one of the rowsof chairs tip over backwards. Screams, laughs, whistles.The projection booth has a door at the back with stairs leadingdown to the rocks. SALVATORE is sitting on the ground, barechested, tired and sticky with sweat. He is reading a letter fromELENA. He is so engrossed the words can almost be read on hisface. ELENA’S VOICE (Off-screen) Salvatore, my darling, here the days never end. I find your name ev-erywhere if I read a book, do a crossword puzzle, thumb through a newspaper...You’re always before my eyes. Today I’ve got some rather bad news. At the end of October we’re moving to the city where I’ll attend the University. It’ll be hard to see each other every day. But don’t worry, whenever I can get away I’ll always come running to you, to the Cinema Paradiso. On the Arena screen, with its potted plants and palm trees, avery funny scene is being shown. The audience again bursts intowild laughter. And the audience of LITTLE BOYS in the boats also laugh. Oneof them, laughing himself to tears, loses his balance and fallsinto the water. The others howl with laughter. A voice rises up out of the carousel of boats.

URCHIN Fuck me! I’ve caught an octopus! An oooooctopus! FADE

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75 VARIOUS SETTINGS. INT/EXT. DAY The August sun is blazing hot. People are forced to stay inside when the sirocco blows. The streets are empty. And there is a strange silence. Nothing can be heard except far in the distance, from somewhere in the country, the love song of some carter...SALVATORE hears it too, stretched out on the floor of his room, his eyes fixed on the ceiling where flies buzz around nervously. The MAILMAN comes down the street on his bicycle, rides up to SALVATORE and hands him a letter...Sitting in the shade of a white wall, SALVATORE reads the letter. Next to him, the dog that kept him company at night, beneath ELENA’s win-dow. He gazes up at him as if looking for news of her.

76 ARENA IMPERIA. PROJECTION BOOTH. EXT/INT.EVENING

The Arena is crowded with sun-burnt faces. On screen, scenes fromU-lysses. On a shelf in the projection booth, there is an enormous pack of letters. SALVATORE is worn out. The waiting has destroyed him. He lookslike a madman. As he winds up one of the parts of the film, he repeatsher name obsessively, under his breath. SALVATORE Elena...Elena...Elena... Now he is sitting outside on the back steps, a few yards from thesea. There is a breeze this evening, the waves are rather high and the boats of ‘gate-crashers’ can be seen out in the water, rollingfitfully but not dangerously. SALVATORE stretches out, gazes upat the inky sky and talks to himself, just like a madman,whispering... SALVATORE When will this shitty summer be over? (Half shutting his eyes) In a film it’d already be finished...(Smiling)...Fade-out and cut to a nice thunderstorm!!! Huh? that’d be perfect!

(...)

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101 GIANCALDO. MAIN STREET AND SQUARE. EXT.DAY ...the coffin where his old blind friend rests for ever. The funeral pro-cession winds its way down the main street. At the intersections, , cars stop to let the black hearse pass by. People cross themselves. The old men remove their hats. Store shutters are lowered. Then, when the procession has passed by, the cars start up again, the old men put their hats back on, the shutters are pulled up. SALVATORE is in the front row with his MOTHER, next to ALFREDO’S WIDOW. SIGNORA ANNA says in a whisper, her eyes fixed on the coffin. ANNA He would have been happy you came, Toto. He always talked about you. Always! Right to the end! He was terribly fond of you...(Tears come to her, she is unable to say any more. SALVATORE gives her a hug, deeply touched by her words.) He left two things for you. Come see me before you leave. SALVATORE nods his head. He gazes intensely at the coffin covered with flowers and is grieved as if he were ashamed never to have come to see the man who had been like a father to him. But why had he forgotten him? Up in front, leading the procession, he sees a young PRIEST with an altar boy beside him, and these figures are also like chis-els scraping the rust off his soul and bringing old feelings to light again. The procession reaches the square. The dark column stands etched in the dazzling early-afternoon light. SIGNORA ANNA motions the driver and the procession comes to a halt. It is ALFREDO’S last farewell to the place where he had spent the best years of his life the Cinema Parad-iso. Everyone turns to look and SALVATORE also turns, taken by surprise...It has fallen to pieces: doors and windows boarded shut, crumbling walls, a piece of the sign dan-gling down, weeds and mildew in the cracks and on the roof. The square has changed completely, is unrecognizable. Buildings, stores, sign boards and lines of cars creeping at a snail’s pace in a deafening chorus of honking horns. And the central square has turned motor-cycles. SALVATORE turns slowly to look behind him, towards the small crowd, and is entranced by the unexpected sight of faces that he rec-ognizes at once, despite the many years that have gone by: the MAN AT THE BOX OFFICE, the USHER who also served as bill-poster, the CHARWOMAN, the CARABINIERE SERGEANT, and further on behind

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ROSA and ANGELO, the lovebirds who had met in the movie house and then got married. They all have white hair. And they too have recognized him, give little hello nods and gestures. Another face he seems to recognize: why sure, it’s SPACCAFICO, the owner. How old he’s become! He also looks up and his eyes meet SALVATORE’S. A hello nod. SALVATORE makes his way over to him through the crowd. They shake hands heartily, without a word, both touched. The procession starts up again. SALVATORE (Under his breath) How long’s it been shut? SPACCAFICO Six years ago this May. No one came any more. You “know better than me, Mr. Di Vita, the crisis, television, videos. By now the movie business is only a dream. The city’s bought it now to make a new parking lot. Next Saturday they’re tearing it down...A pity!... SALVATORE is disconcerted, irritated by that ‘Mr. Di Vita’. Besides, find-ing out that the movie house is to be torn down depresses him, after all, it’s a piece of his life...And all those curious faces staring at him. SALVATORE But why do you call me ‘Mr. Di Vita’? It didn’t used to be that way...

SPACCAFICO Well, it’s hard to call an important person by his first name. But if it re-ally matters to you, I’11 call you...(Smiling) Toto!... SALVATORE smiles at that. Meanwhile, the procession has reached the church. SALVATORE excuses himself and goes over to the hearse. Old SPACCAFICO watches him go, then says, almost to himself)

SPACCAFICO Bless you, Toto. The coffin is unloaded. SALVATORE has asked to be one of the bearers into the church. As he moves off slowly with that weight on his shoul-der, somebody catches his eye on the other side of the sidewalk. An

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old woman, sixty or seventy years old, with a plastic bag in her hand. She crosses herself quickly. SALVATORE recognizes her she was the one he made love with for the first time. TERESA, the prostitute. The coffin is carried into the church, followed by the little procession.

(...)

114 SEAFRONT AND PIER. EXT/INT. CAR. EVENING SALVATORE stands motionless on the pier, facing the storm-tossed sea. He feels relieved by the roar of the waves that dispels his bitter thoughts, blurs them, but does not wipe out the look of suffering in his eyes. A flashing light seems to approach behind his back. SALVATORE turns and is blinded by the headlights of a car parked at the beginning of the pier. The splattering waves lend the scene a hazy cast and diffuse the glare of the flashing headlights. Now the lights move towards him. And SALVATORE also lakes a few timid steps forward... They are close. The car has almost stopped. But it is impossible to make out the person at the wheel who now reaches over to open the other door. A voice can be barely heard over the raging sea. It is ELENA’s voice. ELENA Salvatore! SALVATORE approaches, accepting the invitation, enters the car and shuts the door. The headlights go off and the car remains there sus-pended between the open sea and the harbor with its rocking boats. Inside the car, not a word. Two dark figures gaze at each other, unin-telligible, as if the night were trying to further delay that meeting. The glowing reflection of a wave higher than the others now lights up their faces. ELENA was right, they are no longer the faces of teenagers, but of people on in years who study each other, searching for a truth. The howling of the wind and the crashing of the waves are louder, but ELENA and SALVATORE /rear nothing, sit glued to their seats, fixed in the endless gaze that envelops them. He is the first to break the silence in a faint voice. SALVATORE How’d you know I’d be here?

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ELENAI don’t know how many years have gone by, but some things about you I do remember. There weren’t many, places you could have gone. I looked around... SALVATORE turns on the light of the rear-view mirror. Finally they can see better. They look at each other a little ill at ease, making the inevi-table comparisons with the memory of their young faces. SALVATORE carefully observes her graying hair, her blue eyes lined with wrinkles, the somewhat faded beauty mark on her lip. SALVATORE You’re still beautiful... ELENA Don’t be silly...I’m old.(She looks down troubled by the way he has of gazing into her eyes, speaks almost mumbling her words.) Don’t look at me like that, please. (And she switches off the light. But this time it is less dark, things can be seen.) Why’d you come back? SALVATORE Alfredo died. Do you remember him?

ELENA Of course I remember him. I’m sorry. You were terribly fond of him. A moment of silence. It’s hard to find something to say. SALVATORE I saw your daughter. She’s beautiful! Who knows how many Salvatores must be running after her... ELENA (Smiling) One or two. Bur there’re not all that many Salvatores. (SALVATORE also smiles, but a puzzled smile as if what she has said had thrown him off-guard.) I’ve got a son, too...he’s older. And you, do you have children? SALVATORE No. And I’m not married.

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(ELENA sits there in silence. A veil of sadness clouds her eyes. SALVA-TORE’S too...) Are you happy? ELENA All things considered, yes. Even if it wasn’t what I dreamt of then... Again SALVATORE is thrown off-guard, as if the round key of his en-quiry had met with only square locks. She continues. ELENA My husband...you know him. SALVATORE Sure, sure! Boccia...(With a bitter smile) What’s he do? ELENA Politics. He’s the district representative. We met at the University in Pisa. Then instinctively, in a shy voice, SALVATORE asks the question that he probably wouldn’t have asked a moment later. SALVATORE And...how come you never married that guy from Tuscany? The white foam of the waves splashes up over the wall of the pier, dashing against the car windows. The shadow of the trickling water is superimposed on the agony of their faces. ELENA hides her embarrass-ment beneath a faint but haughty smile. ELENA I didn’t want to...I had to fight tooth and nail. But in the end I won...(SALVATORE is unable to smile. It’s as if the void were growing and swelling within. Thunder and lightning shatter the roaring of the wind and sea, hut it does not rain. Now her smile Jades away.)At that time...I was waiting for you...There is no resentment in her words. She has said them fondly. With the serenity of someone who has suffered greatly and then found a strong convincing way of suffering no more. For SALVATORE, it’s as if one of those thunderbolts had pierced his heart. He leans over, gazing into her shining eyes.

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SALVATORE But I’ve never forgotten you, Elena! ELENA (Whispering) Nor have I. Even though you disappeared...(SALVATORE is staggered, feels as if he were plunging into the void. What she has said strikes him as grotesque. ELENA strokes his hair, as if to restrain his sinking heart, gives a sweet smile.) But what’s the point of talking about it? We risk being pathetic and ridiculous. (And she tries to change the subject.) You still live in Rome?

But SALVATORE ignores the question. He doesn’t want to change the subject. He feels that everything is crumbling inside him, the alibis and excuses he had had to give himself in order to accept the end of their romance. And instead, now the tables seem to have completely turned. Without realizing, he shouts desperately, staring wildly at her and shaking her by the shoulders. SALVATORE What do you mean, you were waiting for me?! What are you saying? (He controls himself at once, continues, breathing heavily.) The last time we saw each other, we made a date to meet at the Cin-ema Paradiso. You remember? And you didn’t come, you disappeared without leaving a trace, nothing! I’ll tell you how many years have gone by: more than thirty!!!

Quiet rears stream down Elena’s face, glisten with the reflections of the lightning and the waves. ELENA I kept that date. (SALVATORE laughs at the absurdity of it. A nervous, heartbroken laugh, which slowly melts away as she goes on to say:) But I was late...(Tears continue to stream out of her blue eyes, but she tells her story in a calm voice.) I had a fight with my family. I tried to convince them again that they couldn’t separate us. But it was futile. They had decided to leave Sicily once and for all. Which is what we did. I didn’t know what to do any more, what to say. And I said yes, I’d do whatever they wanted. In re-turn, my father promised to let me see you one last time, to say goodbye.

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But I hoped that by seeing each other we could take advantage of it and make a decision...I thought we would run away together. (She holds back her sobs. Dries her tears with the back of her hand, and continues:) My father drove me to the movie theatre. But you weren’t in the pro-jection booth. Only Alfredo... Her voice continues over the scene of same thirty years before...

115 CINEMA PARADISO. PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. AFTERNOON FLASHBACK. ELENA’S VOICE (Off-screen) And I didn’t have time to wait for you to comeback... From the bottom of the spiral staircase, ELENA’S FATHER is waiting nervously, yells up at the projection booth. ELENA’ S FATHER Elena! Hurry up!!

YOUNG ELENA All right, Daddy!...In the projection booth, ALFREDO is sitting on a stool, near theprojec-tor. Seen from the rear, the YOUNG ELENA is leaning over beside him, she is excited, her eyes are red and swollen with tears. ELENA’S VOICE (Off-screen) So I told Alfredo how things stood and fiat I was leaving the same evening, and I asked him to tell you everything. He was very kind, he listened carefully, then... ALFREDO answers YOUNG ELENA, stroking her hair.

ALFREDO Easy, easy. (Sighing) Listen carefully to what I have to say. If you want me to tell Toto what you’ve told me, I will. But if you want my advice, forget it. It’s better for both of you if you don’t see each other...

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(YOUNG ELENA gives a start of resentment, listens with surprise.) Dear girl, fire always turns into ashes! Even the deepest love ends sooner or later. And after that other loves appear, lots of them. Toto, he can’t understand fiat now. If I tell him he won’t believe it, he’ d be capable of killing me...But you can understand, you’ve got to under-stand...Do it for him!

116 WATERFRONT. INT. CAR. EVENING SALVATORE sits there without moving, pale as a sheet, looks as if he hadgrown even older. As if the whole world has fallen in on him. For ELENA, it was a painful but liberating story. She dries her last tears. ELENA It’s the first time I’ve had to chance to tell the story. I never mentioned it to anybody. SALVATORE (In a daze) Alfredo, damn him! He cast his spell on you too! ELENA I told him I’d take his advice. But before I went away I left you that note...(SALVATORE gives her a quick look, a questioning look. He listens.) I was on my way down the stairs...(Her voice continues, laid over the...)

117 CINEMA PARADISO. PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. AFTERNOON Flashback

ELENA has already said goodbye to ALFREDO, is on her way down the stairs, but stops short. ELENA’ S VOICE (Off-screen) I thought Alfredo couldn’t see me. So I snuck back up...(She tip-toes back without making any noise. Goes over to the film-winder. Takes out a pen, looks for a scrap of paper, but doesn’t see any. Her eyes fall on the film receipts hanging on the nail. She tears off the top one, turns it over and scribbles a message on the back.)

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I wrote you where you could find me, and that I’d wait for you. She hangs the scrap of paper back on the nail, well in sight. She creeps out, glancing at ALFREDO, who hasn’t noticed a thing.

118 WATERFRONT. EXT/INT. CAR. EVENING ELENA finishes telling her story. She heaves a Jeep sigh. ELENA But you disappeared all the same. There is a haunted look in SALVATORE’s eyes, he is searching his mem-ory for something he can’t find, then suddenly sees, as if in a dream...his hand thirty years before going through the routine gesture of hang-ing a receipt on the nail, over the others, mechanically, without even looking...and he shuts his eyes as if fearing the truth. Her last words have wounded him. He shakes his head, then in a faint voice:

SALVATORE Oh, how I looked for you, Elena! You’ll never know. I wrote, tele-phoned, nothing. Nobody ever answered. But I dreamt of you for years! That’s why I went away...and never came back here. (And his anguish breaks free, dissolving into quiet, almost childish tears. ELENA is startled by his reaction. She caresses him, passionately. They embrace and remain like that, she with her face buried in his shoulder, he leaning on hers with his tear-filled eyes.)Even as the years passed, in all the women I met, I was only looking for you. I had success it’s true, but there was always something missing...(She is deeply moved, goes on caressing him gently until he calms down. The car windows are steamed up. The sea, the harbor, the waves have disappeared. Nothing remains but the sound of the storm. SALVATORE takes her face between his hands. They gaze at each other, their faces practically touching. He murmurs:) I’d never have imagined that all this had to end because of the man who was like a father to me. A crazy lunatic! (She gives a faint smile.) ELENA He wasn’t crazy. In the beginning I was upset. I think I really hated him. But then, with time, I understood what he said...and your silence too.

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SALVATORE whispers one last dreadful revelation. And it’s as if he had got a terrible weight off his chest. SALVATORE But I never saw that note! (He squints, as if to stress the absurdity of the idea.) I must have covered it with my hand, without realizing it, that’s the only explanation...(But strangely enough, ELENA is not surprised.) ELENA What difference does it make to find an explanation? That’s the way it went. But Alfredo didn’t betray you, he was the only one who really understood you. Salvatore, if you had chosen to be with me, you’d have never made your films. And that would have been a pity! Because they’re wonderful, I’ve seen them all. (Her eyes glitter with joy, then she smiles, almost ironically.) But you shouldn’t have gone and changed your name. You should have kept your own. Tears stream down Salvatore’s cheeks. He gives her a look of longing, of desire. ELENA embraces him. They kiss with heartrending tenderness, with the same passion of their first kiss amidst the strips of film brushing their faces, so many years ago. And they make love, clasped in the cramped quarters of the car, like two teenagers. Passionate kisses, embraces, deep sighs. Their hair damp with sweat, their hands clasping, their fingers interweaving. Then the frenzy subsides into a deep, tumultuous

pleasure, of immense loving and immense grief...As outside the wind and the waves go on rating around that car which seems suspended in empty space.)

119 ALFREDO’S WIDOW’S HOUSE. INT. DAY SIGNORA ANNA’S hands place an old wooden stool and a rusty round metal can on the table. ANNA These are the things he left to you...

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SALVATORE is sitting by the table. He has finished the cup of coffee SI-GNORA ANNA has prepared for him. He picks up the stool, recognizes it at once: it’s the one ALFREDO had made for him as a little boy so he could climb up and put the reels on the projector. ANNA When they showed your films on television, he was happy. He’d plop himself down there and all his ailments were forgotten. He knew all the words by heart, every one, and I’d describe what was going on. And when the papers talked about you, I had to read them two or three times... SALVATORE examines the can, wonders what it can be. He opens it: inside is a reel of film, wrapped in a plastic bag, well preserved. Those objects bring a pang to his heart, and the things that ANNA said, but he feels disappointed, as if he expected to find something else. SALVATORE Did he ever think of meeting me?

ANNA No, never! One time your mother said that if he wanted, you’d have surely come. He got furious and said ‘No, Toto mustn’t come back to Giancaldo, never!!’ He didn’t say it to be mean. He was a decent man. Who knows what he could have been thinking? Towards the end he’d say such strange things. And a moment before he shut his eyes, he told your mother not to let you know.

120 CINEMA PARADISO. PROJECTION BOOTH. INT. DAY A cloud of yellowed scraps of paper flutters into the air and as it falls slowly to the ground another handful is flung up. SALVATORE is in the projection booth, looking through the countless yellowed receipts, stuffed away in boxes. He looks at them one by one, then throws them into the air. A desperate search, almost a defiance of the passing of time. He continues with greater determination, flings piles of receipts into the air, glances at a few dates, a film title, tries to discover the old-est dates at the bottom. He moves swiftly, his hands plunge in, then fling up a nimbus of paper and dust. But to no avail...He stops, short of breath. His eyes go over to the nails in the wall, where other stacks

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of receipts are hanging. He gets up and goes to look at them, thumbs “ it through them hastily, in anger... He yanks off two or three packs, which come off, nail and all. Only then does he notice that at the bottom of those blocks of yellowed paper, there are same more sheets, much older, almost brown. His eyes concentrate on the mildewed scraps of paper. He leans over, picks themup and goes through them one by one, delicately, because they crumble in his fingers...And then all of a sudden, some film titles he recognizes from that time. He goes on thumbing through them, and all at once an astonished look appears on his face in his hands is a receipt that has been turned over. It’s the one! The message scribbled on it can still be seen. He reads it. SALVATORE’S VOICE (Off-screen) Salvatore, forgive me. I’ll explain later what happened. Not finding you here was terrible. Unfortunately, this evening, my mother and I are leaving for Tuscany. We’re moving there. But you’ re the only one I love, I’ll never be with anybody else, I promise. Here’s the address of a girlfriend of mine where you can write to me. Don’t abandon me. Love and kisses, Elena. He clasps the scrap of paper, and his brimming eyes darken with regret.

121 CAFÉ IN SQUARE AND ELENA’S HOUSE. INT/EXT. DAY ELENA stands near the window overlooking the little square, listening on the phone to SALVATORE’S voice. She can see him through the transparent curtain speaking on the phone down below in the café. ELENA When are you leaving? SALVATORE opens his eyes, tosses away his cigarette. SALVATORE This afternoon. Elena, in the future maybe we could... ELENA interrupts him, speaks softly, tenderly.

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ELENA No, Salvatore...there is no future. There’s only the past. Even meeting last night was nothing but a dream, a beautiful dream. (Smiling) We never did it when we were kids, remember?

(Down in the cafe, SALVATORE nods his head slowly, desperately.) Now that it’s happened, I don’t think there could have been a better ending.(It’s farewell. SALVATORE glances one last time at that window.) SALVATORE I’ll never agree with you. Never, Elena.

122 CINEMA PARADISO. EXT. DAY The square, unusually empty. There is no one, and no cars and mo-torcycles are parked in the middle. The stores are shut. And there is an unreal silence. The houses on the two streets on either side of the theatre are covered by enormous pieces of gray canvas. Only now does the camera discover in the distance, a crowd of curious onlookers waiting in front of the movie house, kept at a safe distance by firemen and policemen. Old SPACCAFICO is in the crowd. SALVA-TORE is also there. Be gazes at the front of the old movie theatre...

123 CINEMA PARADISO. INT. DAY The inside of the theatre, completely empty...All of a sudden, a blind-ing flash and... 124 SQUARE AND CINEMA PARADISO. EXT. DAY ...a deafening roar rends the air, accompanied by a surge of amaze-ment in the crowd. And the Cinema Paradiso suddenly collapses, folds inward and disappears for ever in a gigantic cloud of white smoke that rises into the air, carried by the wind towards the crowd...

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125 ELENA’ S HOUSE. INT. DAY

The echo of the explosion is also heard in ELENA’S house. She is alone. And the bang distresses her, as if something had burst inside her. From her face to...

126 SQUARE AND CINEMA PARADISO. EXT. DAY

SALVATORE’s face, stiff, unmoving, his eyes fixed on those falling ruins, on that season of his life turning into smoke and dust. Enveloped in the white cloud, SPACCAFICO stands crying in silence. Mice dart out of the ruins in terror, scamper nervously into the square. A group of youngsters scream, amused and excited. Among them, ELENA’S DAUGHTER, smiling... SALVATORE sees her joking with friends and pointing to some boys chasing the mice across the square, hoot-ing and laughing. As a white-haired OLD TRAMP, filthy and covered in rags, makes his way through the crowd. There is an empty look in his eyes and he repeats obsessively in a low voice: VILLAGE IDIOT The square’s mine, the square’s mine, the square’s mine... SALVATORE recognizes him, it’s the VILLAGE IDIOT, the one who used to close down the square at night. Be watches him walk off, raving, with nobody even noticing. The crowd now moves over to the huge empty space where the movie house once stood. The murmuring voic-es are drowned out by the deafening roar of an airplane. From the ruins of the Cinema Paradiso, fade to...

127 ROME. STUDIO VIEWING-ROOM. INT. DAY ...SALVATORE’S hands giving a STUDIO PROJECTIONIST the rusty metal can left him by ALFREDO. SALVATORE Please check the splices. As soon as you’re ready you can start. PROJECTIONIST OK. Congratulations on your film. It’s terrific.

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SALVATORE Thanks. A COLLEAGUE of SALVATORE comes up behind him. SALVATORE Well? COLLEAGUE The distributor is opening up the film earlier. The press conference is in the afternoon. The actors will also be there, the producer, just about everyone. An ASSISTANT comes up to them. ASSISTANT The official notification of the award just came out, but we’ve already received a mountain of telegrams. Aren’t you happy?

SALVATORE It’s all right. We’ll talk about it later. SALVATORE walks off towards the viewing theatre. SALVATORE is by himself in the small viewing theatre. Now the lights go down. The beam of light shines out of the little square hole of the projection booth and the screen lights up. A number trailer goes by and then SALVATORE sees the first shots. A start of intense amazement and joy suddenly runs through him, as-tounds him, delights him. It’s the best piece of film he has ever seen... It consists of all the kisses ALFREDO cut out of the films and kept for him, when he was a little boy. They have been spliced together, one , after the other, at random, same of them even upside down. And yet it looks like a first-rate editing job. In rapid sequence the passionate kisses between actors and actresses, names famous and names unknown in the history of movies. Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Alida Valii, Rudolph Valentino, Ingrid Bergman, Clark Gable, Anna Magnani, Humphrey Bogart, Marlene Dietrich,

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Amedeo Nazzari, Luisa Ferida, Vittorio De Sica, Rita Hayworth, Tyrone Power, Doris Durante, Massimo Gironi, Marta Abba, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Assia Noris... A whole movie season summed up in a few fragments, a few seconds. A bizarre, poignant, melancholy parade. SALVATORE is overwhelmed, moved to tears. It is the most profound act of love he has ever seen. He laughs as tears shine in his eyes. Up on the screen, another kiss, the last kiss marking the happy ending of a film. And the age-old words appear “THE END”.

“SALVATORE IS OVERWHELMED, MOVED TO TEARS. IT IS THE MOST PROFOUND ACT OF LOVE HE HAS EVER SEEN. HE LAUGHS AS TEARS SHINE IN HIS EYES. UP ON THE SCREEN, ANOTHER KISS, THE LAST KISS MARKING THE HAPPY ENDING OF A FILM. AND THE AGE-OLD WORDS APPEAR “THE END” ”

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GLOSSÁRIO DE IMAGENS

HAPPY DESIGN 10-11 Fotografia Pessoal ( na foto - o meu irmão)19 Kate Moross em www.flickr.com/photos/katemo21 Kate Moross em www.flickr.com/photos/katemo31 Kate Moross em www.flickr.com/photos/katemo37 Ilustração para a Nike Dunk Kate Moross41 T-shirt com Ilustração Kate Moross51 Poster anunciando o novo álbum de Lou Reed Stefan Sagmeister56-57 Stefan Sagmeister73 IMB Logo Paul Rand78-79 China’s Map Este mapa faz parte de uma série de mapas

desenhados por Paula Scher

MUSIC IS MY JOY101 Baden Powel105 Vinícius de Moraes107 Nara Leão111 Grupo Musical Os Mutantes Maria Bethânia, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa e Gilberto Gil119 Caetano Veloso em palco128-129 Caetano Veloso147 Caetano Veloso

170 Caetano Veloso

LOVE LIFE179 Lomografias Tiradas com a máquina lomográfica LOMO LCA+183 Lomografias Tiradas com a máquina lomográfica SUPERSAMPLER187 Michael Phelps no fim de uma prova de natação197 Michael Phelps200 Frame do Filme Cinema Paradiso 214-215 Frame do Filme Cinema Paradiso Personagem Totó238-239 Frame do Filme Cinema Paradiso Personagens Totó e Alfredo