The Ben From Brazil

Latest Update: October 11, 2006

By Ben Marcus

MIDNIGHT, WEDNESDAY THE 11TH OF OCTOBER, 2006 GATE 66 AT LAX

No one seems to be in too much of a hurry here. The pilots are standing at Gate 66 for United and I double checked again to make sure this is the Copa flight. Must be delayed. Imagine.

I tried to send an update from those crappy airport computers but the space bar didn’t work so I sent two things that were indecipherable and wasted money and gave up.

Don’t know if Sacklunch will run them. He emailed back and asked if my Space Bar was broken and I explained what happened and said I would write a clean blog on the plane.

Sheeit, a girl just came walking toward me in a hat who walked just like Kristie, and she looked good in a hat, as Kristie does.

Not her, though.

What a long day this was, but it all flowed pretty well except for computer glitches and almost running out of gas near Sunset Boulevard, and I got everything done.

This evening I was feverishly making $4.95 labels with my labeler that I now like and putting them over the “Summer 2006” cover blurb on 150 issues of WET Magazine: The Quality Quarterly for All Women Who Surf. I was told to do that by Russ Warner at Warner International and since he was the guy who sold 600 issues to newsstands and distributors in Santa Maria, Nebraska, Alabama and Missouri, I had to obey.

I should have done this a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t like reducing the cover price and didn’t have time to paste all those stickers so I did it at the last minute. I did 50 copies to a newsdealer in Santa Maria, 25 for a place in Nebraska, 25 for a place in Missouri and did 50 of 500 for Media Solutions in Alabama.

I did this pretty much from 4:00 in the afternoon until Mark took me to the airport at 10:15, and it was pretty intense.

I watched one of the bootlegs, a classic surf movie from the 70s that I hadn’t seen in a long time. No one has seen this movie in a long time because it hasn’t been released, I don’t think, so I am hoping people in Brazil will freak out.

It’s pretty good. The surfing from MR, Shaun, Rabbit and them is still red hot.

Let me go back to this morning. Woke up at 4:30 to a hootie owl. Tried to go to sleep but couldn’t and so worked on Chapter 10 of the History book.

Man that girl just looked like Kristie again. Weird.

Worked on that while my friend worked on her book, which is the legend of Robin Hood told from Maid Marian’s perspective. We got out of there a little late and it was foggy and we drove down Corral Canyon and up and over Kanan Dume Road and she made it to work in Westlake Village at just about 9:00 on the dot.

Then I drove to my storage locker in Calabasas and paid them with a check that won’t be good until the 12th and then drove over to Malibu. Stopped for coffee and deposited some money at BOFA because my account was at $0 and I knew I would be charging things at the Post Office and elsewhere.

Saw decent surf while driving across the bridge but was too busy.

Got home and finally unwrapped the labeler that I didn’t think I was going to like. I forgot to buy AAA batteries so I went back to the store and bought those and came back and started to assemble the labeler but got distracted by the History of the surfboard book and WET things and emails and a million other things.

My first priority today was making sure I got to the Brazilian consulate at 13:00 to get my passport and Visa. Second priority was getting out as many of those 600 issues as I could.

Third priority was picking up DVDs from Robert and getting copies made of the bootlegs. I am assuming they will be stolen in Brazil so I want to be sure I have backups here so I don’t have to pay $170 again to have them dubbed from the Beta.

I sure hope I am at the right gate. I think the plane is just late.

So I got back to Malibu around 9:00 thinking I would have three hours to label all those magazines but that didn’t happen. I left Malibu at noon and drove to the Brazilian consulate.

I have been having a lot of trouble with AOL lately at home and I can’t tell if it’s the wireless signal or AOL, but on the way to the consulate I wanted to change my billing from Bank of the West to BOFA and I did the whole thing using their automated service, which worked really really well. Voice activated and all.

If only their service was that good. I had about 60 New Mails that I started to go through yesterday, and then they just disappeared and didn’t come back and I don’t think they are coming back. Not good, and their email retrieval has just been Third World for a while now.

So I did that on the way to the Consulate and also called Jonesy on 103.1 to ask if he had seen Basquiat and what did he think of David Bowie’s performance as Andy Warhol. Jonesy loves Bowie, as he should, but when I talked to him about Basquiat he didn’t seem all that impressed.

I told Jonesy I was going to Brazil and he got excited and asked me to bring him back a bubble butt, so I said I sure would try.

I wanted to get in and out of the Brazilian consulate as fast as possible, and I did, believe it or not. Just when I got there they divided the Visa retrieval line into two lines and so I got to the head of the second line quick, no problems with the Visa, obrigado and ciao.

One spectacular Brazilian girl walked in while I was standing in line and reminded me I should be looking forward to all of this. I couldn’t at that point because it was 1:00 and I had so much to do before 11:00, but now I am starting to like the idea.

Left the consulate and drove up La Cienega. Called Scott Hulet and pitched him a story about what happened to Bob McTavish and Nat Young between the World Contest in 1966 and when they brought vee bottoms to Honolua in the winter of 1967/1968. that is a sliver of unwritten about history I found while working on the history of the surfboard book.

Hulet seemed kind of intrigued but I had to hang up because I was driving up a steep road leading to Sunset and I was low on gas and started to bog. I pulled over, put what was left of my gas can in the tank and made it onto Sunset.

I gassed up at the corner of Sunset and the road that becomes Laurel Canyon. I forget the name. There was cute girl on a scooter there and I told her to be careful on that thing, in Los Angeles.

Made it over Laurel Canyon to Roberts. I gave him the two bootlegs and he said he needed 20 minutes to make copies. I found the Post Office in Valley Village easily and got a parking spot in front. I had a bunch of packages of WET magazines to send to England, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere, including the woman who won the subscription on Patti’s MySpace.

Took me a while to package all this stuff up but I got it done borrowing some scissors but the line at that Post Office was too long. Went back to Roberts, paid him with a check that won’t be good until the 12th, I hope and then drove back to Malibu by way of Malibu Canyon Road.

Went straight to my familiar Post Office where Maria and the Chinese lady know me and my needs very very well because I am in there every day. I sent issues to everyone and also a complete set of the archival DVD to Bob McTavish, because he was in a couple of those Dukes and he is going to love the 1947 footage of Rincon and Malibu with Quigg and Kivlin and them.

From doing the history of the surfboard book I have an appreciation of who McTavish was, and Dick Brewer and a lot of others, and I love George Greenough. His description of growing up on the Ranch, where he spent more time in is lobster boat then surfing, makes me green with envy.

Greenough was and is a legitimate, eccentric genius who was many years ahead of his time, and changed things profoundly.

So I wrote another check for $119 that won’t be good until the 12th and I should be worried about all this except that Landlady Sue said don’t worry about the rent check I wrote her until I get back. I told her I should have dough waiting for me when I return and I will pay her two weeks in advance for next month’s rent to make up for being two month’s late on this months.

This is all because a check I deposited for $3000 more than a week ago hasn’t cleared yet. I should have had a cashier’s check sent. Oh well, hope I don’t bounce anything.

Today I also had to fill out a claim form for the charges on the Bank of the West ATM stolen from me two Sundays ago. I guess it was while I was surfing Third Point with Slim and Vanessa. The clever crook knew which card I didn’t use often, took that and a Money Order and went nuts on Monday, from La Salsa to Target.

I filled out the claim and complimented them on their security system which alerted me that something was wrong on Monday.

I sent that by priority mail.

The USPS has a priority box that costs $8.10 to ship no matter what you put in it. I can fit 25 issues of WET in there which is great, because that would cost $30 to ship otherwise. They are saving me a ton of money and it seems like people are ordering in groups of 25 and 50, so that is working out great.

It’s nice when things work out.

At the Post Office I got eight of those boxes pre-postaged for $8 and asked if the USPS would do a pickup. I figured I would ask Mark to take them to the Post Office tomorrow if I didn’t see our postman.

I got home around 3:00 or so and began a long haul of washing clothes, making stickers, putting them on issues, putting subscription cards in issues, sometimes with WET stickers and getting organized and packed.

I have about 40 DVD in the big bag, and several copies of Surfing and the Meaning of Life, and some copies of WET and a copy of Surfing USA and other flotsam and jetsam.

Earlier today I contacted Barry Haun at the SHF and offered to pay him if he would supply Michael Dregni with all the visuals he might need for the History of the Surfboard book. Barry has just about everything at his fingertips, and he agreed to do it so that is in good hands.

Wow this thing is almost 2000 words and I am only describing today.

So from 3:00 on I was making stickers, putting them into boxes of 25, writing cover letters and packaging them up.

My only mail today was a subscription request from the Nike Design Library by way of Ebsco. I couldn’t figure out what it was at first, but when I saw it was Nike I made a box that included issues, the Trunk It disc for their fashion history, a rate card of course and a cover letter. That was another thing I had to do along with everything else.

I did this while watching the 70s bootleg and answering emails and worrying about all those checks I wrote that won’t be good until the 12th.

But it felt good to be getting those magazines all boxed up and heading out. I waited too long on that and wrote cover letters apologizing for that.

Copa flight is delayed 30 minutes, so that is not so bad and it gives me time to bore everyone with this.

What else today? All kinds of stuff, phone calls, emails, WET stuff, but that is enough for now.

I am at the airport, I am going to Brazil, most things are taken care of at home and this should all work okay.

There a bunch of guys waiting for this flight who are acting like the kinds of guys who get planes diverted, but we shall see. I hear the flight is only 80% full. Maybe they will move me to Business.

Wish there were Wi Fi here. I thought airports had free Wi Fi?

If I think of anything else important I will chime in before we leave. The computer is plugged into the wall, so all is well.

Oh, I also picked up a fax from Chris Mauro, who sent me Dave Parmenter’s Thoroughly Modern Silly article from Surfer Magazine. And I faxed that Request for Proposals thing to Spy.

I would love to sell 30 pages of advertising at full price for issue #2 of WET, but we shall see.

That is all for now. Just glad I got through the day with no disasters. Sometimes LA goes your way.

Oh yeah, the guy who drove me to the airport is Mark, who lives below me in the small space where I used to live. He works for Zuma Jay now and is helping with the Wax Book. That book is what brought me to Malibu and I am jazzed it is finally being produced, but I wonder why I am not being asked to proof it, and I wonder if my name will be on it. I did a lot of work on that book and I wonder how much of my work they are going to use. Could be another Schiffer Book that I wrote that isn’t credited to me, but we shall see.

Talked to Wink today and he said he has seen my Surf Guide to California in bookstores. That book is a bit of a masterpiece, if I say so myself, but it seems to be invisible. I have never heard that much about it and I know it’s better than Surfing California and it’s written like the Surfing Guide to Southern California.

I’m tired, which is good, because I am going to sleep on the plane and wake up in Panama City. I have my video camera with me but no Mini DV. Hopefully I can buy one in Panama City and video Sao Paulo as we fly in, because you have to see that place to believe it.

One of the rowdy guys just asked about my computer. Hope they don’t get us diverted to Mexico City or something.

I still have a nasty gash and bruise on the back of my left calf where that dopey kneeboarder got me at Malibu about a week and a half ago. It was on a wave I shouldn’t even have been riding, and I still got clipped. Malibu. Yuck.

I wonder if the surf in Brazil is crowded?

It’s almost 1:00. I could have been putting stickers on magazines and putting them in boxes all this time, dangit.

Looks like they are getting ready to board, but they are speaking Spanish, dangit.

Gotta go.

As Jonesy says: Thanks for listening!

Seems a long time ago I was hooting at that hootie owl this morning.

9:15 I THINK WEDNESDAY THE 11TH OF OCTOBER. PANAMA CITY AIRPORT

Panama City looked a lot like Waikiki on the way in. Big hotels down on the water’s edge, ships lined up, tropical. There were guys all around me going on a surf trip somewhere in Panama. The guy next to me was Jeff Johnson, but there are a lot of Jeff Johnsons. Uneventful flight. Fell asleep reading Atlas Shrugged and slept through Poseidon and the breakfast service and the Samba competition and whatever else was going on. The flight was pretty empty, which was nice. Used my Armani jacket as a blanket.

Panama City airport is clean and well lighted. They have a good electronics store and I bought a Panasonic Mini DV tape for $5. I want to video Sao Paulo as we are flying in because you kind of have to see it to believe it.

The flight to Rio leaves at 11:15 so I had better be sure what time it is right now. My computer says 7:21 and my cell phone says an hour later but I am at the gate now so I don’t think they will leave without me.

Might got get some coffee or breakfast or something. No computer terminals in the airport and no Wi Fi signal. Nope, maybe there is. Three possibilities. Let’s see if one of them works. WhisperHotzone has a signal. Might want me to pay, but I can do that.

Trying to sign up for an account with WhisperHotzone but it doesn’t like my PIN number. Not sure what it wants.

That’s not working. Maybe I have to buy a card or something. Oh well, all I would do is jabber.

Gonna go get some breakfast.

Oh I looked at the flight route in a magazine on the plane and I have to fly over most of Brazil to get to Sao Paulo and then Rio. I change planes in Sao Paulo and so probably have to get my own bags.

I’ll be okay. Don’t you worry.

19:00 BRAZIL TIME WEDNESDAY THE 11TH OF OCTOBER, I THINK OVER BRAZIL

Okay, this is getting a little tedious. I’m ready to hit Rio and paint the town pink or whatever.

Friends just went off the screen and I stood up and went back and asked for another one those cheese and ham sandwiches they handed out a little earlier. They were yummy and it breaks the border.

They are making an announcement right now, probably about customs forms.

This flight has been uneventful. Flew over most of Brazil today which is kind of like flying over the United States except that its jungly. A lot of Brazil is very flat and green and it makes you wonder what is going on down there.

Watched a Lindsay Lohan movie about Lucky something in Spanish and dozed off then read some of Atlas Shrugged and also finished a profile on Bill Clinton in the New Yorker. Hillary doesn’t have a prayer but she is too game not to have a go.

Also in the New Yorker there was a short profile on a guy with a very long name who represents the remnant of the Royal Family in Brazil. He’s a prince whose family was run out of Portugal by Napoleon. He lives in Rio and he surfs and I met him last time I was here and might meet him again.

His daughter wants to be a writer. Maybe she could write The Women of Rio for WET?

By the way, I took out a copy of WET on the plane and read through some of it.

We did a good job on that thing. I hope the advertisers come through.

I’d be jazzed to get 30 companies signing up for $2000 a page for the next three issues.

They just handed out customs forms so I will sign off and not mention the hip hop nitwits standing in line in front of me and calling each other Dogg and Dude and talking about beats over and over and over as I boarded this plane.

I am curious to see where I am staying in Rio and I hope I have Internet.

We should be on the ground in Sao Paulo in an hour or so. It’s already dark and I remembered that I am in the southern hemisphere and Brazil is just coming out of winter.

Hope I brought enough warm clothes.

10:16 BRAZIL TIME, I THINK, WEDNESDAY THE 11TH OF OTOUBRO BLACK COFFEE CAFÉ AND SUSHI BAR AT SAO PAULO AIRPORT.

Yummy. The shrimp roll looks good and the coffee is good, strong Brazilian coffee. The sign on the wall here at the Black Coffee Frontier and Sushi Bar says Wi Fi zone so I am seeing if there is a free, poachable signal. I just went to the third floor and the Telefonica office and spent about R27 to check emails, and maybe that was a waste and maybe not.

R doesn’t stand for Riyahls or Rupiah, silly, it stands for Reais.

Someone just scored a goal and everyone ran to the eight TV monitors on the wall here to check it out.

It’s all true: Brazil is huge, the women are beautiful and they looooooove futbol. Everywhere you look is a TV screen large or small with Futbol on it. Everywhere in the airport, anyway.

And they make great sushi at the airport, so how do you like that?

Speedy WiFi failed but it’s probably a pay deal.

Vex didn’t work either.

ASAS didn’t work and I’m pretty sure Telefonica is a pay deal so I wont be poaching a free signal here.

I cashed $50 to see what the exchange rate it and it seems to be about 2 Reais to the dollar. I don’t remember what the exchange rate was last time, but I do remember the currency was inflating like 40% a month and it was chaos.

Apparently they have that straightened out now. I might need to exchange more to pay for that sushi and the coffee. No what am I talking about. I got 100+ for that 50, so I am good. Divide by two for everything so that sushi roll was about $8.50.

My flight to Rio doesn’t leave until like 1:00 in the morning and I don’t check in until midnight so I have time to kill. Got off the plane an hour or so ago and cruised throough Customs and Nothing To Declare and now I am eating sushi and drinking black coffee.

It was dark flying into Sao Paulo so I couldn’t video the view or compare it to my previous memory, which was of one very large city full of high rises that went forever.

I was here more than 10 years ago with Art Brewer to do a profile on Fabio and Flavio for Surfer Magazine. And now I am back.

Nothing on the news about my return yet that I have seen, nor have I been recognized as the guy who did the profile on Fabio and Flavio in Surfer 12 years ago, but maybe they will do a Special Bulletin during the soccer match.

There were about 70 emails waiting for me and about 30 were good including one from Tina Skinner at Schiffer Books who is wondering when I am going to finish their book on stickers. I promised to do it longer ago than I care to remember – like two summers – but as they don’t pay advances I have not been in any hurry, and I have been busy.

If I can get the History of the Surfboard book out of the way, I will turn to the sticker book. You gotta wonder about a publisher that doesn’t pay advances and doesn’t promise any return at all. Books are too much work to do like that so maybe I am punishing them a little bit.

Also Schiffer did the Jim Phillips book, which didn’t have my name on it but that’s not their fault. And they apparently are also finishing up the Surf Wax book for Zuma Jay which also apparently is not going to have my name on it although I did an awful lot of work on that thing. Not sure what they are going to use.

Mark doesn’t talk about it much which suggests a lot of my stuff got cut, but I interviewed everyone from Zog to the guy who founded Poon Tangs surf wax, and I even know that the word Poon Tang comes from the French word “putain” which means filthy hole.

There, learn something new every day.

So I am not all that keen on Schiffer. Voyageur/MBI know how to treat an author:

PAY HIM!!!!!!!!!

Speaking of the History of the Surfboard book, Bing Copeland sent an email clearing up two parts of his story from the middle 60s: Bing and  _____ ______ because of drug problems on the part of the shaper, and Warshaw was wrong about Bing buying David Nuuhiwa a purple Porsche - the deal was more complicated than that.

Those details might not make it into the short version of the History of the Surfboard but those details are what the long version will be all about.

Now that I think about it, the very first surfboard I ever touched was a red David Nuuhiwa Noserider from Bing that I found when I first moved to Santa Cruz on Seventh Ave. I was absolutely straight out of the valley so I sawed the thing in half and me and Michael tried to bodyboard the pieces at Twin Lakes.

Where would I be without The Encyclopedia of Surfing, by the way. Thanks Matt, for your suffering has made my life a lot easier.

I forgive him for not including me in there. I mean, I put Mavericks on the map and started the Surfer Video Awards. Ain’t that worth something?

Somebody just scored again. Goooooooaaaaalllll!!!!!!!!!!

And what is this? Oh my, look! A pretty girl!!! In Brazil!!!! No way!!!!!!

Now it’s 10:38. I was going to sign on with VEX Wi Fi for R$25 for 24 hours but I might not need it. Hopefully wherever I am staying has Wi Fi so I can send this because I know you are all worried sick.

And there is only $32 in my BOFA account. I hope that $3000 kicks in tomorrow or I am going to bounce a lot of checks all the way to the Amazon and back.

Not much more to say for now. That was a long, and pretty boring plane ride but at least I caught up on some reading.

Atlas Shrugged is a massive book but I liked The Fountainhead and so far I like this one: It’s all about people working hard and being productive and doing what they think is right and sticking to their guns and not giving a shit what other people think and I am all for that.

I mean, I am the fool who started a women’s surf magazine when three others had failed.

Not sure what was going on in the 50s to inspire that kind of hard-headedness from Ayn Rand, but she sure can write. Maybe it was fear of communism.

A fairly torn up, bag lady sort of woman just walked by to my left and inspired this big flash of an empathetic thought process and I felt sorry for her and then I turned to my right and she was standing there saying something to me in Portuguese that I didn’t understand so I gave her two Reais.

Should have done better but she surprised me. She was nice and said obrigado.

Another pretty, well-dressed, perfectly groomed Brazilian woman just walked past. I think I will keep count.

I have just added “Portugeuse” to that list of words I can’t spell, including sucess, rhytym and a lot of double consonant words. I went down in the sixth grade spelling bee on triffle. Hitler was a good speller who couldn’t spell double consonant words, either, so what does that tell you?

Maybe I will just say “porkandcheese” from now on, as a tribute to Doug Johnson.

It’s almost 11:00. An hour until check in and then another hour until I leave and then an hour to Rio. I apologized to Rosaldo for having to pick me up so early but then I remembered he is Carioca, and they never sleep.

I’m rambling. I have been rambling. Bye for now. Back to Telefonica to see about a Wi Fi hit.

1:00 OR SO, THURSDAY THE 12TH OF OCTOBER, GATE 15 AT SAO PAULO AIRPORT

I think I am in the right place. This is gate 15 but the girl keeps making announcements and people are arguing and I hope I don’t end up in Minas Geraith or Mordor or somewhere strange.

Been waiting a few hours. I called Rosaldo a while ago and we chatted and he said he is having someone pick me up at the Airport and take me to the Tropical Hotel, which is on Barra Beach, near where I stayed last time.

I thanked Rosaldo for bringing me down here and asked if there were any other Amer

Ooops, gottta go.

Nope, false alarm. I saw people boarding but that is the flight to Curitiba, which is where Marco is from, I think.

I said I asked Rosaldo if there would be any other Americans in Rio but he said I was the only gringo. The others are going to the show in Sao Paulo. I won’t make that one but at least I will be leaving Rosaldo with several hours of historic footage he can use to entertain and amaze.

He wants me to do a Power Point presentation called How the World Changed Surfing and How Surfing Changed the World. I am hoping I have enough visuals on my backed up computer discs to do that. I backed them up not too long ago so all of Surfing USA! Should be on there and a lot of other things.

Anyway I am reading this New Yorker and there is a letter to the editor responding to a story by William Finnegan about Clark Foam. I spoke to him briefly when he was working on it and was hoping he would call me back, because I had a lot to say based on what I had seen at Walker, and other articles I had done on the whole deal.

The way I see it, making polyurethane foam is a pretty nasty, toxic business and there is no economical way to make it not so nasty and after spending a few hours around Walker Foam I understand why Grubby got out of it, and wondered why he hung in there so long.

So people might criticize Surf Tech but the way I see it, anything that keeps humans from being subjected to the chemicals and dust and itch and danger involved in producing polyurethane is a good thing.

I never read Finnegan’s article but the letter to the editor was titled Blank Monday, a title that I kind of claim because I used it in a bunch of articles about the closure of Clark.

I’ve always said my ambitions as a writer were to be published in Surfer and in The New Yorker. I got Surfer pretty covered but the New Yorker is a different kettle of fish. I have sent a few things to the Shouts and Murmurs column: A spoof in which John McCain proposes moving the entire nation of Israel to Arizona: “Hey they moved London Bridge to the Arizona desert, how much harder could the Wailing Wall be?”

And another article called Lipodiesel, in which Governor Schwarzenegger proposes a program to turn human fat into clean-burning diesel: “America has an energy problem. America has a weight problem. No problem!”

Neither of those got printed so I guess the title Blank Monday is going to be as close as I get, for now.

Wow, look at that, a beautiful girl with dark hair!

I just figured out what it is about the Brazilian women that is different than American women. Brazilian women aren’t vulgar. They manage to be ridiculously, naturally sexy without being vulgar, which is not something a lot of American women pull off.

I sit at Malibu Kitchen most days and watch an endless procession of Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie wannabes go by. They are trying to be sexy, but just look stupid.

Brazilian women don’t look stupid. They just are sexy. It’s quite a thing.

Or maybe I’m just tired.

Brazil is a pretty unique mixture of native, Italian, French, Portugeuse and African culture and the last time I was here I asked someone what the predominant European style was in Brazil, and they thought it was French. Then I asked where all the sex and sex and sex came from and they said, “Africa.” Which makes sense.

I don’t think I am imagining all this. I’m sure that others have noticed. Didn’t Orson Welles make a movie about Brazil called “It’s All True” back in the 50s?

Was he talking about futbol or feijoada, or what?

Social studies aside, I think my flight is boarding in about 15 minutes, I hope, then it’s an hour to Rio and someone is going to pick me up at the airport and we’ll just have to see how swanky it is, but it is on the beach and so maybe I can get in the water.

I just heard someone whistling that weird song that Darryl Hannah is whistling when she walks down the hall dressed as a nurse in Kill Bill 1. It’s a song that is always in the corner of my conscience, for some reason and when I heard it behind me my head snapped around. I don’t know if someone was actually whistling it or if it was on TV but anything is possible in Brazil. They are a fairly musical people, too.

I am so obsessed with that song that I once paddled up to Darryl Hannah at Malibu and asked her where it came from. She told me it was the theme to some obscure English horror film from the 60s that Quentin Tarantino liked. Darryl Hannah was out surfing with Sean Macpherson who is Janet Macpherson’s son, who I also met for the first time that day. Darryl and Sean were going out then but that is pau and I had to cut a photo of her out of a group photo of Sean and Janet and Steve for WET Magazine. Look close and you will see a woman’s shoulder. That is Darryl Hannah.

Darryl Hannah is very nice and very tall and was pretty comfortable out in the water. I wanted to ask her about her biodiesel El Camino with the primer black paint job when she came in, but the paparazzi appeared from out of nowhere and chased her and Sean off the beach, into the El Camino and out of there.

But at least I know where that theme is from.

Anyway, enough of my yakking and name-dropping and such. This blog is getting long and the lady is making another announcement in Porkandcheese I don’t understand. I think it might be time to go. Is it late? People just erupted with catcalls, but there is no soccer game on. I think the flight is delayed. Hope so.

I need a translator. I don’t want to end up in Minas Tirith or somewhere like that.

Wow, this blog is 6000 words and I just got here. Sorry about that.

Battery is low. Hope I can charge this thing without and adapter.

5:15 AM RIO TIME THURSDAY THE 12TH OF OCTOBER, 2006 ROSALDO’S GUEST HOUSE

Twenty four hours after I left LAX, almost to the minute, I pulled up at the gate of Rosaldo’s house in Barra de Tijuca. That came at the end of a NASCAR-like taxi ride from the airport with a top speed topping out at 130 MPH, whatever that adds up to. The drive used all three lanes and asked if he was going too fast. I said I was from Los Angeles and was used to either that, or going 10 MPH.

So we made it and Rosaldo’s house is nice, a contender for SHACK. There are birds chirping outside and a big mountain right behind me and the house is a little bit Bali, a little bit Brazil and it has Internet. I am watching CNN right now in English and it’s funny because the commentators are all English. I think they are probably trying to give BBC World Service a run for their ratings.

I am going to finish this and try to send it and then sleeeeeeep for quite a while. I am in another time zone and another season and it’s a little disorienting.

The flight from Sao Paulo to Rio was about 40 minutes and the driver met me at the gate with a sign. I thought I was going to Hotel Tropical but he took me straight to Rosaldo’s. Well night straight.

Rio looked nice at night. Old. There was a castle all lit up on a hill and there were people all over the place at 4:00 in the morning. We passed by Copacabana and made it to Barra, where I stayed last time, up in the hills.

I showed Surfando Antes dos Anos 50s and he liked it and said it was sure to be a hit. We talked about Malibu and Hussein and other things and then I came upstairs.

I am going to hook into his Internet and send this, and then sleep proper.

If you made it this far: Get a life!!!

No, just kidding. Thanks for reading.

16:44 RIO TIME THURSDAY THE 12TH OF OCTOBER

I am in a very nice shopping mall in Barra Beach, on the west/north side of Rio.

R and R r Rguing about something and R’s wife thinks it might be the beginning of the end of their relationship. More on that later.

I am near the surf culture display on the floor of this mall which is also very nice. This is a thoroughly modern shopping mall, nicer than most in America. We had lunch upstairs at an Italian buffet place and I was reminded that the Brazilians, like the French, eat very very well.

I ate with Rosaldo and his wife Carol and their daughter and Rosaldo’s partner Flavio Dias, whose father was one of the first surfers in Brazil and has the photos to prove it.

Flavio’s daughter is very pretty and works for a TV sports station. There was another photographer there and.. wait a minute… wait a minute…. I just poached a free Wi Fi signal. Hot diggity dog I can finally send this and bore the pants off people.

Anyway I had a nice lunch with a bunch of Brazilian people and we talked about WET and SHACK and other things and I told Rosaldo he can be the Brazilian editor of SHACK because it is a magazine that could do very well in Brazil, because Brazil is tropical and people like to travel.

Rosaldo’s house is a contender for SHACK because it looks like Pupukea and has elements of Bali. It is a surfer house, built by a guy who is not rich and not poor, and that is what SHACK is all about.

Woke up this morning around noon to children singing. Apparently there is a school next store and the kids listen to music and sing all day, which explains why the Brazilians are so musical.

I thought it was like that every day – oh man look at this girl walking by, this place is ridiculous – sorry, where was I. Today is a holiday, it is Children’s Day so I guess I will not be serenaded awake every morning by singing schoolchildren.

Woke up groggy and Rosaldo’s maid handed me the phone and Rosaldo made sure I was okay and asked the maid to make me a cheese sandwich and scrambled eggs and thick, black Brazilian coffee and I felt much better.

I did some work and sorted out all my books and magazines and such and met Rosaldo’s wife Carol and his cute daughter who rolls around on shoes with wheels in them.

Then we hit the road for lunch and to check out the surf culture display.

That is where I am now. Rosaldo’s partner is Romeo and he was looking at a copy of WET when I met him and now he and Rosaldo are arguing about something, or maybe they are having a polite conversation, it is hard to tell with Brazilians.

I am going to send this while I still have that Wi Fi signal.

Hope all is well on your end, and Thanks for Listening.