Jonty Skrufff's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘sao paulo’

Alisson Gothz: “God Hates Brazil! Brazil is a pretty fair representation of a modern-day Sodom & the Antediluvian world – a nation of people given over to eating past full, drinking to the brim, fulfilling every lust that piques their slightest interest. Fags are loud and proud in Brazil, with their pride parade in Sao Paolo being the biggest in the world. In the same manner as Sodom & Gomorrah will Brazil – along with the rest of the world – be destroyed!”

Those are the words of a man we all know quite well, the very same who gave the world the slogan “God Hates Fags”, Reverend Fred Phelps of Topeka (Kansas/USA) – the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church. As pointed out last week by Brazilian web portal Virgula, his website “God Hates The World” now features a very curious and funny article about Sao Paulo and Brazil. The website is often offline so probably  you’ll need a little extra heavenly help to view it.

In his text, the world-famous anti-gay religious fanatic leader describes Sao Paulo as a city doomed by its gay citizens: “They have no shame & cannot have shame! The Lord created them for the express purpose to give them over to vile affections, to pickle them in their sins and destroy them in hell forever.” For him, the city’s Pride Parade is a place where “filthy freaks walk in a death march”.

“Sao Paolo (the 2nd largest city in the world) is a particularly evil city and it is undoubtedly the fag capitol of Brazil. In the same manner as Sodom & Gomorrah will Brazil – along with the rest of the world – be destroyed!”

Of course, one cannot take the Reverend’s remarks too seriously. As for myself, I’m not worried about his statements at all. Maybe we should rename Sao Paulo as “Disco Inferno” and dance until we die!!

Godhatesalissongothz.com

Godhatesalissongothz.com; click on the picture for more

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Living doll Alisson Gothz (click on the picture for more)

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Alisson Gothz: Punks, trannies, rent boys, freaks, thieves and all sort of outcasts. These are the muses and divas of Brazilian-born artist Fernando Carpaneda. Like a modern Michelangelo, he creates his subversive nude male figures as a punch in the face of the conservative (and boring) society. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Living in New York for more than a decade, Carpaneda is finally releasing his memoirs, a splendid collection of his artwork and thoughts on life, art and sexuality. And I’m proud to say that I was the very first “nightclub persona” he used as an inspiration  for one of his sculptures. I haven’t got the foggiest idea about the whereabouts of this piece right now, but I’m sure is in very good hands. Other Brazilian drag superstar received a well-deserved homage from him, the very dear Gazelle.

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DJ Fergie

Irish tech-house star DJ Fergie spent almost 48 hours travelling to a gig in Sao Paulo only to learn that the festival was cancelled when he arrived.

Chatting to Skrufff this week, the nowadays Glasgow based former Radio 1 star revealed how he’d been forced to stay overnight in a Heathrow hotel after a flight delay meant he missed his connection, meaning he eventually arrived in Brazil just hours before he was due to perform at Science Fest.

“I was met at the airport by the promoter who told me the gig wasn’t happening because the police had cancelled the festival,” said Fergie. “I’m not exactly sure why.”

“On the bright side I was paid in advance and I guess this puts me in the elite few to have travelled half way round the world just for a meal,” he mused, “But I feel really sorry for the promoter and for people who paid for tickets to come and see me.”

Fergie’s gig was cancelled the same weekend as Sander Kleinenberg struggled in Serbia as the weather intervened to ruin a Belgrade party.

“Just heard the thunderstorms have scored too many points for this open air party,” Kleinenberg Tweeted. “Thunderstorm 1, Up-for-it crowd 0. Party canceled,” he added.

Progressive house pioneer Dave Seaman also used Twitter to announce a weather related no show gig this week, though messaged fans five days before his show was due to happen.

“Unfortunately my scheduled gig this Friday at Bora Bora in Galati, Romania has been cancelled due to flooding in the club,” Dave Tweeted.

Jonty Skrufff: Follow Jonty on Twitter

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Secos e Molhados

Alisson Gothz: “One of the most glamorous memories I have from my childhood is that I used to absolutely adore the cover of a very old vinyl record my sister had on her collection. That record was from a Brazilian band called “Secos e Molhados” (“Wet and Dry”, in plain English).

But I didn’t care for their music though – my attention was entirely focused on their looks, the very first sight of fabulousness I’ve ever had in my life. There they were, three adult men in full drag, with their heads chopped-off and placed in a table. For me they were just clowns, for I was only in my early childhood and didn’t understand the gender-bender message behind all that make-up. But I knew they weren’t clichéd clowns – they were fierce!

Back in 1973, the band released their first record – which became a enormous success, selling over one million copies in just a few months. Mixing psychedelia and Glam Rock with Brazilian traditional music, the trio was like an atomic bomb of pop culture, and soon became one of the most successful acts of our history.

Their stage presence was intense, dramatic and jaw-dropper. Wearing heavy make-up (which by the way is considered to be the main influence on the legendary face-painting from metal kings ‘KISS’) and colourful hippy outfits, their live shows were like an explosion of ecstasy – no wonder they were always completely sold out.  The band didn’t last very long tough – they released another record a year later and then disbanded. But the damage was already irreversible: the Brazilian pop culture had been changed forever.

During the 70’s, Brazil was living one of his most important cultural periods, with great talents emerging from literally everywhere and fighting against the oppressive dictatorial regime started in the late 60’s, playing with sexuality and politics. Together with the Dzi Croquettes and many more artists, they were provocative, innovative, state-of-the-art freaks.

I only get to meet these lovely lunatics back in 1979, and it was love at the very first sight. I used to place the record cover on my little drawing desk and trace their make-up on paper. I only understood the idea behind all those fancy costumes almost a decade later, but that cover will stay forever as my first glimpse of what I’d like to do for the rest of my life.

VIDEOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIyvM9Ce7mM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK_msOCc0II

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Renato Ratier (Click on the picture for more)

“Sometimes it’s hard to keep both sides going, to balance the nightlife with the day-life because I’m the sole owner of D-Edge so I have to be there in person to check what’s happened last night. I also like partying a lot; when I go to the club at night, I drink, I socialise and party.”

Sitting in his sumptuous Sao Paulo apartment, Renato Ratier smiles as he outlines the difficult balancing act he maintains running his uber-successful Brazilian club D-Edge against indulging the temptations from being one of South America’s most popular and successful house DJs.

“For example, on Thursday night I went to another club first, then D-Edge then after that some people said ‘let’s go to your flat and have an after-party there’. So we came back to my house and my friends ended up leaving at 4pm.”

“Then I had to go to the club to take care of some matters immediately afterwards,” he sighs. “That’s the difficult question for me: balancing everything. Of course, business is important and I need to take care of things but I really like the nightlife. So that’s difficult. Sometimes I need to go home early.”

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Alisson Gothz & Jonty Skrufff (live @ Vegas, Rua Augusta) Click on the picture

Click HERE for a Youtube clip from my gig at Vegas in Sao Paulo on Saturday. The clip’s quite dark but it captures the flavour of the night pretty well.

Rod (photographer), Alisson, Jonty

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Meu Amigo Claudia ("My boy friend Claudia") click on the picture for the trailer

Most of Sao Paulo’s chaotic craziness can be better understood by watching this small selection of great documentaries I absolutely love. Most of them are pretty new, and have being shown in international film festivals all over the world. If you find yourself specially interested in one of them, ask for your closest Brazilian friend to find a copy for you.

Meu Amigo Claudia (“My boy friend Claudia”)

This documentary is about the life and times of Claudia Wonder, São Paulo’s quintessential transsexual diva and activist. Claudia emerged during the second half of the 70′s as an actress staring a few good movies from the “pornochanchada” era (our own version of “sexploitation”).

In the 80′s, she was the lead vocalist of a performance punk band and absolute Queen of the Underground, specially among the crowd of the infamous Madam Satan club – where she used to perform totally naked inside a bathtub full of fake blood. She was also muse to one of the greatest writer Brazil has ever had, the late Caio Fernando Abreu.

She broke through prejudice and was the very first transsexual to publicly fight for their rights as citizens. She became hugely involved with politics, and, in 1984, she joined other artists in the civil movement that ended the dictatorial regime in Brazil by demanding direct presidential elections. Since then, she’s been fighting for the rights of the LGBT citizens and is also involved in HIV related issues. Her singing career is also going strong, flirting with electro house and sexy lyrics.

Botinda: click on the picture to watch the movie in full

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Alisson & Jonty Skrufff (click for lots more Alisson)

We’re delighted to announce that ubercool queen of Brazilian nightlife,  avant garde superstar Alisson Gothz is joining the Skrufff team, and will be contributing regular reports on her adventures in Sao Paulo nightlife.  Check below for a selection of pictures of Alisson in action:

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Benjamin at D-Edge (click for more recent pictures)

Sao Paulo disco house DJ Benjamin Ferreira is in the running for ‘best breakthrough DJ on 2009, in DJ Magazine Brazil’s latest annual poll of talent.

DJ Magazine’s Brazilian staff have selected nominees for the 16 categories based on their clubbing experiences of the last year, selecting Skrufff DJ Benjamin alongside the likes of Gorky, Lishy and Leiloca Pantoja (Djs including Magal, Atum and Gui Boratto are included in their ‘best DJ’ category). Clubbers are being invited to vote for their favourites in all 16 categories (including ‘best festival’, ‘best blog’ and  several groups for ‘best club’) with voting running throughout February.

Benjamin told Skrufff he’s delighted, if surprised, to be included in the poll.

“Nobody told me about it – I just saw a link for the nominees on Twitter and started scrolling down the page to see who was there, and suddenly I saw my name. I didn’t expect to see my name there at all- really,” he laughed. “I shouted loud enough to terrify my friend who was sitting next to me at home.”

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Camilo Rocha @ Vegas (click on the picture to download Camilo's latest Tech-o-disco DJ mix)

“The original vision for Discology was about good dance music from any era meaning disco but also funk, soul, old school hip hop, 80s dance, acid house, boogie, vintage electro, classic Detroit. The name Discology has actually more to do with ‘disc’ than ‘disco’.”

Though London and increasingly Paris have gone ‘nouveau disco’ crazy in the last 12 months, Sao Paulo club night Discology first began championing the trend 5 years earlier in underground clubs and minimally converted strip clubs around the city. The brainchild of top local journalists Claudia (Clau) Assef and Camilo Rocha (also one of Brazil’s best known DJs) the club nowadays takes place once a month at Vegas, one of the wildest and best clubs in Sao Paulo nightlife.

“The inspiration came from Clau and I looking at our massive record collections and thinking it was a real waste that they should stay home,” says Camilo, “At the time, 2003, local clubland was still dominated by linear DJ sets, so there was something radical about the notion of playing all these styles together, from many different eras.”

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