J. Beaman - The Magazine

Oliver installed e muito boa iPhone app for movable type and I’m doing a little test run on it here. Here’s a rundown of the last few days:

Wednesday: the fucking brasilians. You invite 4 people and 14 show up. Anderson (from the previous picture), Carol (also in the picture), Steve and Leco (Steve’s brother in-law) planned to go to a bar (Via Christina) in a barrio (neighborhood) called Santa Antonio to watch the Brasil vs Ecuador game (Brasil 2-1!). Who shows up? Paulina (smoking hot doctor/Cousin of Steve) with three of her hot friends (one of whom was celebrating a birthday), Julia (Carol’s sister and proof fucking positive that the concept of the Jersey JAP has no borders), a friend of Anderson’s, a fussy annoying vegetarian from Madison,WI, her gay friend (who knew that gayness could come through so strong with an accent - comforting, actually) and I think that’s it. The food was divine. Grilled steak with dried and crushed chic peas and little tater tot things (but tastier, like if you got tater tots at Firefly) and little fried corn meal guys stuffed with ground beef (and others stuffed with shrimp). The whole bill? Under $80.

Thursday: Thanksgiving. With all of the family constantly showing off…”This is the especiality cusine of Minas Gerais”…Steve and I thought it would be fun to cook some American food for everyone. We made a Turkey, a chicken, sweet potatoes, baked beans, Firefly’s awesome corn spoonbread and Steve made some baked acorn squash thing. Everyone enjoyed themselves, Steve cried like a little girl in a pink dress and the corn spoonbread was by far the favorite. Thanks Brad.

Friday: Friday night we went into the city and dropped the kid off at the grandparents. They are very sweet and charming folks. Luciana’s father (Luciano…seriously) is such a fatherly archetype. “I swear my father breaks things just so he can fix them later,” Lu said after a successful repair of an electrical problem in their car caused my Luciano’s meddling. Again, a few calls were made and an hour of waiting around we head to a bar/cafe near their house. Again, we start with 4 and end with 12 people. Julia was in full on fucking princess mode and was beginning to damage my calm (the next day, Leco said, “She’s a piss in the ass.” and I think that might be my new favorite phrase. A pain in the ass is not that bad but a piss in the ass sounds like the worst thing ever). But it was raucous and loud and everyone talks with their hands (which is helpful for the understanding) and the bill was pathetically low.

Oh, and I did get tattooed on Friday afternoon. Flavinha was hotter (a little less rundown) and her breasts were dreamily soft (she tattooed my chest and kept leaning in on me - don’t think for a minute that I convinced her to let me touch them) and she knocked the tattoo out of the park. I was going for a “written on the bathroom wall look. Check it.

The beer is cold. Ice fucking cold. For reals. The refrigerators have large LCD thermometers, -3 deg (C, of course), -8, -15, sometimes it comes frozen. It’s mostly (at least in your average bar) Pilsner style–good but not great but, fuck me in the face, it’s cold.

I was dropped off today in a neighborhood called Savassi (in Belo Horizonte)–possibly to meet up with a tattoo artist friend of Luciana’s. She was cool–looked like a tattoo artist chic–a little bit hot, a little bit rundown but I hella made a tattoo appointment with her for Friday. What to get? I’ll work it out.

Ok.

I’m fucking moving here. Not because it’s great. It is great but everywhere is great when you’re on vacation. Steve needs me. It’s hard down here for him–it would be hard for anyone–but that’s not why either. I need adventure. I crave it. I need the the stimulation. I need to learn a foreign language. Think about it–I could come down here in June with about 10,000 bucks, live on that easily for six months or longer and be a friend to one of the greatest men that I have ever know, Steve Blanton. Of course, why wouldn’t I? And I’m young. I could live here for six months, a year, fuck….five years and still come back to SF (with a hot brazilian wife) and open a restaurant.

Oh, and another rad thing. Thumbs up. The thumbs up is a goddamn passport in this country. Thumbs up and hang loose. Thumbs up to the security guys–to your waiter–thumbs up to the guy who gives you directions. What a great country. Everyone is ecstatic to be alive here. I’m ecstatic to be alive here.

Belo Horizonte. Bel Horizont (pronounced horizonch…like conch shell)
or just Bell if you’re cool. But you have to hold the L for a second
like your thinking of licking someone’s balls.

yeah, the one on the right is a babe. but she’s got some Canadian boyfriend. And she’s a charmer and funny. But the real treat is the guy on the left, Anderson. He is hilarious, charming, a boozer and (as Lu would say) a bohemian. Which means he goes out to drink on Wednesday night. And, of course, the great Steve .