Made in Brazil

The First All-Gay Condo In The Country

2008-09-05T08:00:00-04:00

Agra Loteadora is taking a big chance by launching a real-estate development geared exclusively to the gay market in the state of São Paulo. Season in Sorocaba is located only 54 miles away from the city of São Paulo, and was designed to work as a country house with all the facilities and luxuries of large urban centers.

There are 150 0.25 acre lots being developed with an upscale gay clientele in mind. Amenities will include a Concierge Center offering services ranging from housekeeping and lawn mowing to personal training, a Club House, and a Living Club. The Club House will feature a Tuscan-style lounge, an infinity edge pool, a hot tub, sauna, a billiards room (for the lesbians mostly I guess), and a fitness center. The Living Club will offer a Gourmet lounge and a reading room. There is also a forest with a lake, trails for hiking, and a ground for open air exercises. Sounds good, right?

I think not only will it be a good option for gay men and women who want a weekend home, but also for gay families with kids who want to be around other gay families in the same situation, or at least in an environment where there is no prejudice. Either that or it will end up turning into a weekend sex club. Whatever happens, it is a progressive idea for Brazil, and I hope it is successful.

The lots will be marketed by Sotheby's. For more information and a virtual 3D tour (with 3D glasses which can be mailed to you if you are in Brazil), visit Season in Sorocaba.

Kylie Is Coming To Brazil

2008-09-05T06:20:00-04:00

Forget about the drama of getting Madonna tickets and dealing with Time For Fun. It has been confirmed that Kylie Minogue will be landing in São Paulo with her KylieX2008 tour on November 8, and the best part is that tickets will be sold through Ticketmaster, and not through the website responsible for sales for the Madonna concerts. Tickets for Kylie's Credicard Hall performance go on sale September 12. Now that is a concert I do not want to miss.

The Sexiest Brazilians Around?

2008-09-04T14:06:00-04:00

Actors Deborah Secco and Cauã Reymond grace the cover of Istoé Gente's 50 Sexiest People issue. It is sort of like People's Sexiest issue, only loaded with Brazilians. Other names on this year's list include actors Rodrigo Santoro, Malvino Salvador, Rodrigo Hilbert, and Olympic gold swimmer Cesar Cielo.

Madonna In Brazil: A Really Sticky Mess

2008-09-04T10:25:00-04:00

The saga for tickets to see Madonna in São Paulo continues, with reports that yesterday ticket scalpers cut the lines and threatened those who were waiting in order to get first bid on the limited number of VIP tickets. Complaints about the Tickets For Fun website made front page on every news vehicle this morning, especially considering ticket sales started over a day ago and people are still not able to purchase tickets online. Those who decided to wait in line at one of the three ticket counter locations, reported on lack of security and poor organization. Aside from the violence, people have also complained that ticket counters are charging the 20% service fee which is supposed to be charged online and over the phone only. I mean, why would anyone have to pay 20% on top of the ticket price to have to wait in line for over a day?

The video above mentions that Time For Fun, the company bringing the Sticky & Sweet tour to Brazil, is being notified that it is illegal to charge a 20% service fee on top of ticket prices. A convenience charge is legal, but it must be a fixed rate regardless of the cost of the ticket.

Madonna Online reports today that VIP tickets for both São Paulo performances are sold out, but that other tickets remain available thanks to the fact that online and phone sales have not been working since yesterday.

Rumor has it that an extra show in Rio may be added if Madonna agrees with it. However, if you really want to see Madonna in South America, my advice is head to Chile, where tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster starting September 10. I would also suggest Argentina, but Time For Fun is also responsible for the shows there, and you do not want to deal with them.

This Is Pretty Scary

2008-09-04T08:56:05-04:00

A twin-engine plane skid off the runway during take off at Congonhas airport in São Paulo yesterday in the afternoon. Luckily the aircraft hit the protection wall at the end of the runway, and did not end up in the middle of the busy Washington Luiz avenue right in front of the airport. Three people were hurt in the accident, which at this moment is believed to have been caused by an engine failure. Via O Globo Online.

Brandy Is Back

2008-09-04T08:00:00-04:00

There are too many tears shed for my taste in the video, but I freaking love her new song.

It Looks Like Romulo Arantes Got A New Tattoo

2008-09-04T06:20:00-04:00

And you can almost see it in this new set of polas, on the inside of his left arm.

Pictures courtesy of Sergio Mattos.

Brazil Crowns New Mister Gay This Saturday

2008-09-03T11:06:00-04:00

The second annual Mr. Gay Brazil takes place this Saturday at Auditório Elis Regina in São Paulo. I am happy to inform that the pageant grew a lot from all the attention last year's winner Luciano Lupo got, and that there are eighteen candidates up for the title now. And to think that it all started when I got the Mr. Gay International organizers in touch with the guys from MixBrasil.

Here are the 18 finalists up for Mr. Gay Brazil this year:

For large pictures of all contestants, visit Mr. Gay Brazil. My top picks so far at Mr. São Paulo, Mr. Goiânia, and Mr. Belo Horizonte.

You can vote for your favorite online at UOL Gay.

If Only Madonna Knew

2008-09-03T08:25:41-04:00

Madonna, you have absolutely no idea what a mess you got yourself in. Time For Fun, the company (ir)responsible for bringing your Sticky & Sweet tour to Brazil, is probably going to make you not want to come back to the country for another 15 years. If the company cannot even manage to sell tickets in an organized manner, I can only imagine what will happen regarding building the stage or guaranteeing security at the concerts.

As if it wasn't enough that Time For Fun servers went down on Monday night, and fans spent more than eight hours online trying to purchase tickets for the concert in Rio, last night the same happened to people trying to get tickets for the two São Paulo performances in December. Time For Fun had announced that it had added 25 extra servers to make sure that online transactions would go smoothly, and yet today every news site is loaded with complaints about the Tickets For Fun website. The only result from the 25 new servers was that fans last night had to endure 25 different pages not loading at all. Folha Online tested the website for several hours last night and never got through, and Madonna Online reported that it had received about 850 emails by this morning, and that only 14 of them had been able to purchase tickets. It is moments like these that make you appreciate Ticketmaster.

The hundreds of people who slept in line at Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo last night may look crazy, but I don't think they are crazier than anyone who spent eight sleepless hours in front of their computers screens refreshing the same freaking page. Ticket counters open at noon, and my guess is there will be plenty of tickets available when no one was able to purchase them online.

As for Madonna, I hope she has requested a helicopter in her contract because I do not think she will be able to drive around much in December with the frenzy her tour is already causing.

Nothing Like A Teen Magazine

2008-09-03T06:20:00-04:00

For pictures of hot teen actors such as Kayky Britto, who graces the cover of the new issue of Atrevida magazine.

Very Last Minute

2008-09-02T15:05:00-04:00

Ford has a new Brazilian girl in town for the New York shows this week: Thais Rumpel.

And she is already model of the week at Models.com.

What An Ad Campaign With Isabeli Should Not Look Like

2008-09-02T14:06:00-04:00

I guess Isabeli Fontana's R$120.000 price tag for the spring Forum Tufi Duek campaign meant that there was no budget left to travel to Maranhão to shoot on the dunes as opposed to the studio (or to at least hire a decent art director). She looks bored out of her mind, and there is something really cheap-looking about the pictures.

Isabeli also posed for Tufi Duek last spring, and the result was actually worse, so I guess things are improving.

A Semana: Brazilian Day, Burning Man, Madonna, La Bündchen, And The Naked Truth

2008-09-02T09:17:00-04:00

The New York Times does Brazilian Day in New York. The festival took place this past weekend on 46th street or Little Brazil, and drew about 1 million people.

While some people were partying Brazilian style on the streets of New York, others were in the Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man festival.

Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour concerts are estimated to bring in about R$15.6 million in tourism alone to São Paulo in December. The number represents almost 40% of the amount 4 days of Carnival generate in the city. Tickets for the two performances go on sale at midnight.

Kiehl's will be opening its first cosmetics store in the country at Iguatemi mall in São Paulo this October.

Gisele has been named the new face of Max Factor, but for ads which will be running in North America only.

I so want a pair of these (in white).

The Advocate celebrates the naked body with twenty-two people of all shapes and sizes photographed by Eric Schwabel. There are even two Brazilians: Gustavo Marzolla and Rodrigo Toledo. Warning: NSFW.

24-year-old Ivan Rusilko was crowned the first ever Mister USA in Boston over the weekend.

I haven't watched the first episode of season 2 of Gossip Girl yet, but am going to do that tonight (especially after seeing these pictures).

Calazans For Massimo Rebecchi

2008-09-02T06:20:00-04:00

I am absolutely obsessed with Rodrigo Calazans these days. Here are images from his latest ad campaign.

Via Modelhommes Forum.

Not So Sweet But Sold Out

2008-09-01T14:06:00-04:00

Over 300 Brazilian fans slept in line last night in order to get their hands on tickets for the Sticky & Sweet tour, but the vast majority logged onto the Tickets For Fun website to try to purchase tickets online. While ticket counters for Madonna's concert at Maracanã Stadium opened at 11 this morning, one hour earlier than advertised, online sales started at midnight and phone lines opened at 6 am. In spite of major problems on the website reported by Madonna Online, which ranged from a busy server to customers not getting a sales confirmation after waiting over 4 hours online to get through the system, by the time ticket counters opened today all the R$600 VIP tickets for the December 14 concert were already sold out. Fourteen hours after sales started, the 75,000 tickets for the concert in Rio were sold out.

In two days 110,000 tickets will go on sale for the two São Paulo performances. I hope that Time for Fun will make sure that their website is able to operate with the demand because from what I have read so far it was a big mess last night. And just so all of you know, the online service charge is 20% of the total transaction, which results in VIP tickets at R$720 (or about USD $440), the most expensive face value of the Sticky & Sweet tour. And there is nothing VIP about the tickets: all that VIP means is a preferred gated area in front of the stage which will most likely also contain another 5,000 people or more standing.