I think of the greatest talents one can have is to be able to draw, create illustrations and create a story with those images, which is the gift of the cartoonists. As someone who has always loved cartoons, it is always fascinating to talk to professionals - and it’s even nicer to randomly bump into someone whose work you admire.
So when I was walking up Rua Augusta with a friend last Sunday, I saw someone was painting traces on the wall that I could recognise - it was Paulo Stocker. One of my favourite cartoonists!
Stocker was born in the state of Santa Catarina, down south, and has lived in São Paulo for the last 13 years and most of his work is inspired by SP, its people and architecture.
We had a quick chat and he was rather nice. When I pointed out his work is somewhat different to the mainstream cartoonists we see in the major newspapers in São Paulo, he said that the broadsheet press wants “nonsense” - ie. violence, controversial jokes and so on, to generate more audience interaction - but he decided to go down a different, anti-establishment path.

According to Stocker, one of his main characters, Clovis, is a partial reference to himself: “a bit clumsy, romantic, touchy and sometimes a bit sad.” The character also has a daughter, a personage created at the same time Stocker’s baby girl was born: “so that she could be proud of me.”
“I’ve found that people actually wanted poetry,” he said, before climbing up the stairs to continue his job.

Check out Paulo Stocker’s work on Facebook.
Browsing the web for videos about New York, I stumbled into the work of super talented Brazilian video journalist Carol Thomé.
Below is a video that she did about her personal impressions of São Paulo, the result of images that she produced herself and other photos posted on Instagram by her friends under the hashtag #essepe (SP as pronunced in Portuguese).
After watching this, how can you not fall in love a bit more with Sampa?
Public phones were transformed into works of art in São Paulo under the Call Parade project, launched this month by telecoms firm Vivo.
Just like anywhere in the world, São Paulo’s public phones, the orelhões (the “big ears” in Portuguese), are falling into misuse as mobiles get cheaper and also vandalised as they are increasingly seen as a not-so-essential piece of public equipment.
The percentage of vandalised phones is often as high as 25% - there are approximately 52,000 orelhões in the city.
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As seen here, the Call Parade project focused on the wealthier, central parts of the city (mostly around Avenida Paulista).
This is also true in the pioneer Cow Parade, however the artists in the Brazilian project don’t seem to be financially rewarded for creating the pieces of art (their payment seems to be the prestige/exposure it generates).
The Call Parade project will last for a month, but its website does not mention what will happen to the artwork in the long-term - the cows in the Cow Parade initiative are auctioned and sold to the highest bidder and proceeds go to charity.
Sure, any bit of art and colour is welcome in the concrete jungle. It is a cool initiative, but the organisers could be getting more meaningful, long-lasting results out of this.
Mulheres de todo o Brasil sairão às ruas amanhã (26), numa grande marcha nacional. O objetivo da Marcha das Vadias é a conscientização dos direitos das mulheres.
22 cidades brasileiras terão versões da Marcha. No Estado de São Paulo, a manifestação acontecerá em Araraquara, Campinas, Guarulhos, São Carlos e São José dos Campos. A lista completa está no blog da organização.
Em SP, a concentração está marcada para as 13h na praça do Ciclista, próximo à estação Consolação do metrô.
Uma das organizadoras do LuluzinhaCamp, a Srta Bia, escreveu um post muito legal sobre o assunto:
Muitas Luluzinhas estiveram na Marcha das Vadias do ano passado. Foi muito importante ver tantas mulheres saindo as ruas em várias cidades do país. Porém, é importante que esse movimento não cesse. A violência contra as mulheres ainda é grande em nosso país. O desrespeito e a falta de liberdade também.
Confira a íntegra do post aqui.

Imagem: Feminista Por Quê?
Quinze meses após ter roubado o chefão do Google no Brasil, Alexandre Hohagen, para chefiar suas operações em terras tupiniquins, o Facebook está contratando profissionais de diversas áreas para seu escritório em São Paulo.
A lista com as informações sobre as dez vagas, em áreas que vão desde relações públicas até vendas, está disponível aqui.

Foto: Scott Beale (cc)
Depois de uma reforma de quase 200 mil dólares, essa casa de 220 m2 de uma designer e um músico em São Paulo foi totalmente transformada:

Com exceção das várias frases adesivadas na parede, nos corrimãos e etc, gostei muito de tudo nessa casa: o contraste de cores fortes e neutras, o chão de ipê, a iluminação, os toques retrô pero-no-mucho, o minimalismo.


Isso sem contar as várias referências aos Beatles :)

via One Kind Design
My husband wrote a blog post about how our troubles at pedestrian crossings in São Paulo:
“There are pedestrian crossings all over the place in São Paulo, but in all their various formats, the car remains king. Even when the crossing has traffic lights and a little green man sign to show that you are allowed the cross, there will often be a car or bus on the crossing making it difficult to get to the other side…”
Read the full post here.

Image by Mark Hillary