Alisson Gothz Sao Paulo Reports: Introducing Torture Garden
Torture Garden comes to Latin America for the first time this January; they’ll be doing two parties at the end of the month: January 27 in Sao Paulo and January 28 in Rio. And if everything goes right, this could lead into a monthly event.
In Sao Paulo the party will be hosted at Blue Space, one of the most legendaries gay clubs in town.
Sao Paulo is watching a new wave of burlesque and fetish performers attracting a young crowd looking for something cool. In several parties and even cabarets tattooed girls wearing vintage lingerie and pasties are dominating the spotlights.
Amongst the Brazilian artists performing at TG Sao Paulo you’ll find Giselle Kenj, a master in Egyptian arts and culture who uses her knowledge to perform the most amazing shows in clubs around the country.
Her fellow mate, Thot, a real albino snake, enchants the audience in every move she makes. She’s like a modern age Cleopatra. Also, Victor Piercing, who’s also been known as one of the most famous performers in Brazil.
His works are provocative, sexy, playing with androgyny and S/M imaginary, sometimes looking like a sexy cyberpunk, and others like a goth unicorn.
His electric chainsaw routine is a trademark of Sao Paulo’s effervescent nightlife.
The tickets can be bought online at http://www.torturegardenbrazil.com.
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Reports: Happy Birthday David Bowie
Click on the picture to buy Aladdin Sane
Alisson Gothz: ”Do you know that awesome feeling when you hear a song and you get chills down your spine? I get that in every Bowie song, even with his most underrated works.
He is – to say the least – my biggest inspiration, the one who shaped me for life. I grew up listening to him and probably will have “Heroes” playing on my funeral. My mother’s still not sure if I’m a boy or a girl, and all I know is that I like dancing and I look divine.
I’ve found him through my teen idol (Boy George), who’s also one of his biggest fans, and “Aladdin Sane” was one of the first records I ever bought with my own money – despite the fact that by then it was already more than 10 years old.
I’m glad to see that, even though “The Man Who Fell To Earth is now relaxing in his Golden Years” and living a modest life out of the limelight, his works and his influences are widely recognised and celebrated by everyone.”
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Alisson Gothz’ Gay Sao Paulo Slang Dictionary
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Gays and lesbians in Brazil have their own slang repertoire called “pajubá”. Well, actually “pajubá” is a real African dialect from olden times, but it got mixed up with Brazilian Portuguese and became the official second language of queers and gender-benders in this sunny land.
The success of gay slang is so big in Brazil that they have been adopted by straight audiences too – it’s not unusual to hear even small children saying expressions like “arrasa!’ or “aloka!”.
Here’s a quick guide to the most commons phrases and words you’ll hear in a club in Sao Paulo or Rio.
Arrasa!
That’s the most useful gay slang ever. Its literal translation is the verb “to raze”, but it used as to send someone positive vibes, like “kick some ass!”, and “go and get it!”, but also as a simple compliment, as in “awesome!”, “cool!”, “fierce!”. You gonna hear it everywhere and in all kinds of situations. Other meanings can also be “work it, girl!”, “right on!”, “sashay, shantay!” and so on.
“Fazer a egícia” – (“to give an Egyptian face”)
1) it’s like when you say hello to a queen on the dancefloor and she pretends to not see you just to keep her pose intact, so you say “Bitch just gave me an Egyptian face”, like the statue of Nefertiti, got it?
2) You’re talking to someone about something he did last night and he pretends he doesn’t have a clue about what you’re saying, even though everyone else does it, so he’s also “giving an Egyptian face”, an indifferent yet guilty look.
Boy Magia
Oh well, this is self-explanatory. A “magic boy” is that kind of man that makes jaws drop. He puts a spell on you and enchants you with his beauty. That’s why he’s magic.
Bate Cabelo – (“Whipping Hair”)
If you’ve watched a drag show in Brazil, you noticed that they almost always follow the same pattern: she comes to the stage in one outfit, lipsynch for a bit, then starts stripping, takes her head-piece off and last – but not least – starts whipping her hair like a crazy tornado. Seriously, they literally fight amongst themselves for the title of the best “hair whipper” of the clubs. It became a Brazilian trademark and this is called “bate cabelo” in proper Portuguese. Since 99% of these shows are performed under heavy tribal-house beats, this type of music also became known as “bate cabelo”.
See it to believe it:
Alisson Gothz; Do the Berlusconi (video)
Skrufff contributor Alisson teamed up with the Panduro DJs in Spain last year to make this brilliant mash-up and has just created her own video…
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Reports: Mandatory DJ Diplomas For All
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The Brazilian Committee for Education, Culture and Sports has just approved a bill that regulates the activities of DJs and producers. This bill will make it mandatory for a DJ to have a professional certificate in order to perform in public places, clubs and events. To get the certificate, the artist must have concluded a professional course in a DJ school.
With this certificate in hands, DJs and producers will be able to get a professional registry at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This bill also determines that the work load for a DJ must be six daily hours and/or 30 weekly hours.
This bill, however, doesn’t apply for foreign DJs and producers who come to Brazil to perform – as long as they don’t stay in the country for more than 60 days. Also, every public or private event with international DJs must have at least 70% of their line-up filled with local professionals.
Although sounding extremely beneficial, not all DJs are totally happy with this new law for a number of different reasons. For instance, they complain that DJ courses in Brazil are still very expensive and not available outside big cities like Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Also, it’s not very clear what DJs who have been performing for decades will have to do to get this certificate – should even they get back to school?
At the same time, most people see this as a great opportunity to stop the current wave of “celebrities pretending to be DJs” that is growing fast in the country, taking jobs from real DJs and, most of the times, ruining the image of their profession.
The bill is needs to be voted by the Committee of Social Affairs and the Chamber of Government before it becomes a law. Let’s see what happens!
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Report; Madame Satan Returns
(Video: Tranny show @ Nostromondo 1994)
One of Sao Paulo’s most celebrated and important clubs of all times will soon be re-launched with very a promising atmosphere. After being shut down for many years, the old historical building, hidden in a corner of a gloomy street and which was once a slaughterhouse may soon become a meeting place again for clubbers and art freaks galore.
The State of Sao Paulo Night-life; Is Pop Killing the Club Scene?
Magal, Renato Cohen, Camilo Rocha, Benjamin Ferreira, Alisson Gothz, Eduardo Corelli
D-edge's Main dance floor
“While our generation took ten years to be able to distinguish house from techno, the next generation that is starting to go out at night has a completely pop background. And today’s pop music is just like mainstream electronic music”. Facundo Guerra (Vegas, Volt, Lions).
Speaking to leading Sao Paulo media figure Claudia Assef recently, nightlife entrepreneur Facundo Guerra, 37, sparked a firestorm of debate when he suggested underground club culture- and international DJs – were no longer viable in the city. Rival club promoter Renato Ratier, who months earlier doubled the size of his landmark club D-Edge, disagreed, though Facundo, a partner in seminal underground nightspot Vegas and new pop centred nightspot Lions was firm.
“Today, if you do not play pop on the dance floor people leave,” he insisted.
“At Lions recently I saw a scene that shocked me: Mau Mau, a DJ we all love, started spinning after Roque Castro, who had just played an extremely pop orientated set. Guess what happened? Mau Mau cleared the floor, something I had never seen in my life!”
Mau Mau (one of Brazil’s most popular and critically acclaimed DJs, overseas as well as at home) was understandably furious and denied Facundo’s claim categorically though given that I’ve just arrived in Sao Paulo for what will be my seventh mini-DJ tour, the tale provokes a touch of concern for me. Not least because both my first and last gigs from five take place at Facundo’s newest club: Lions . . .
Bar de Netao revellers (DJ Jeronimo & friend)
Claudia Wonder: Sao Paulo’s First Queen Of Club Culture (R.I.P.) (interview)
Claudia Wonder
Brazilian civil rights campaigner and transsexual performance artist Claudia Wonder started her nightlife career in Sao Paolo in 1975, performing alongside iconic Brazilian drag queens including Andrea May, Thelma Lipp and Brenda Lee.
Running round Sao Paulo’s then tiny after-hours gay scene, she routinely faced arrest from the police controlled by Brazil’s then notoriously brutal military dictatorship and became an ardent activist in the campaign that lead to democracy in 1985.
Also championing gay rights and later on, HIV and AIDS awareness issues, she became a national celebrity around the same time when she fronted Brazilian punk band Dirty Trick. In Sao Paulo meanwhile, she became even more infamous for her show ‘The Vomit of Myth’, which she regularly staged at the Madam Satan club, stripping off naked in a bathtub full of blood.
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Moving to Europe in 1989 (where she worked as a cabaret artist and make-up stylist) she came back to Sao Paulo in 1999, returning to music in 2007 to record on a number of electro albums. She also became a columnist for GQ magazine the same year and in 2008 was the subject of a documentary “My friend Claudia’ directed by filmmaker Dácio Pinheiro.
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My Friend Claudia
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Continuing to fight for gay rights and AIDS issues, Claudia died of an AIDS related illness of November 26, aged 55. She chatted to Jonty Skrufff and Benjamin Ferreira several months before, in her flat in the centre of Sao Paulo close to Avenue Paulista (Benjamin acted as a translator).
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world AIDS day (december 1) click for more
