Football and fashion

May 29th, 2007 Posted by Tiff

It’s still raining, no wonder Paulistanos actually get stuff done. Blog blog blog, blah blah blah. Cheers Café keeps the caffeine coming and soon has me racing like Senna though and I power through my work to get off to Sao Christavo Bar in Vila Madalena.

Sao Christavo is this tiny little bar restaurant that is practically a shrine, a terreiro, to some Brasilian Candomble football deity. Every single inch of space is covered in programmes pictures newspaper clippings and a host of scarves from around the world suggest it’s a travelling football fan’s paradise. With horror I even see there is a Rangers season ticket… freshly up too. Now who could have left that there?

It’s the Champions League Final and as Kaka is playing for AC Milan the staff, me and a small bunch of Paulistanos who are skiving work for the day get the Brahmas on the go and settle down to watch the game. What’s most interesting, and it seems very Brasilian, is that the biggest oooh is not for Milan’s goals or Liverpool’s comeback, or the final whistle. The biggest cheer is for Kaka’s double dragback 30 mins in which doesn’t actually contribute to anything but looks great. O jogo bonito is alive and well and reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Later we head over to Sao Paolo’s legendary club D-Edge which is kind of like The End or Sub Club or Back To Basics of the city. Been there from the days before electronic music, embraced it at the right time and now is home to city’s best DJs, best crowd and, my ears tell me, best soundsystem. It’s got that great indescribable (but I’m about to try) whoomp when you play thumping tunes on it. We meet and interview Oscar Bueno one of the old skool (sorry Oscar, you don’t look a day over 40 mate!) of the Sao Paolo electro scene.

Last time we met was on my turf Oscar was dropping banging electro house and looking stunned as Sambayabamba rinsed the Sub Club with a maracatu version of the Scotsport theme tune! A few beers later its time to take an early night so we head for bed… at 3am.

“There are no early nights in Sao Paolo” Bruno Ramos (Slag Records)

The sun starts to peep through the clouds. I’m munching on Brasilian papaya, and no that’s not a euphemism for anything untoward, though it ought to be. We’re getting a retro fashion tour of Sao Paolo with Ira from CSS. It’s my second visit downtown and I’m curious to get into the bowels of this big city beast. That probably IS a euphemism for something but even I wont go there.

Downtown has a weird tension between edgy and affluent. Ira meets us at Galeria de Roque which is a really cool and bloody huge indoor arcade of lots of little shops all selling t-shirts clothes and music all centred around the rock indie and metal scene.
She’s spiky, chlled and cool all at once. Just like the band. I just realised as the bassist she did the bassline for ‘Lets Make Love’. Respect is due indie girl!

Ira is a funny and informative guide as we duck in and out of clothes and screen print shops. We like it that when she laughs really loudly she looks freaked out by the loudness of her own laugh.

We end up in one of Ira’s famous restaurants, in downtown Sao Paolo near a beautiful park and exquisite architecture. The Lebanese community is very big in Sao Paolo and the food is fantastic, tabouleh pitta hommous… all the classics plus, at Ira’s request a middle eastern version of steak tartare. I can’t believe I’m actually eating raw meat spiced with spring onions. A week of death by bum rot awaits if you mess around with that business away from home… and yet not only is it beautiful and I’m converted but I write 24 hrs later and I’m all good baby.

A fantastic meal with a very cool lady.

As if the day couldn’t get any better we ended up at the restaurant at the top of the universe, or so it felt. On floor 41 of the Italian building some genius decided to put a panoramic glass cocktail bar. A helicopter buzzes the building, an old pianist plays Jobim on a grand piano and we look out at the city blinking buzzing and electrifying the night. NOW it looks like Bladerunner, “a new world awaits you in the off-world colonies”, in a way, true!

Four Tet and Open Field Church’s Eduardo join us and we sip cocktails and soak in the moment. There’s not many this special no matter if you live to be 100.

We head on to Milo a bar (recorded for your pleasure) club that’s run buy Eduardo and Dago from Open Field Church. Dago’s set is great reminds me of the very fantastic Bebado DJs in Glasgow and even better than that he’s wearing a Tryptych T-shirt… Neil does his best to look innocent and surprised. Yeah right!

It’s the coldest of the year in Sao Paolo though, a chilling 10 degrees (try Glasgow you big girl’s camisas) and the club is quiet as everyone is too cold to come out. We watch a pretty average band, wish Dago was still DJing and head home for a Sao Paolo early night. It’s 3am.

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