Art Garfunkel in Concert

If I had to name my top 3 musical groups of all time, they would probably be: Queen, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.
It's interesting that they are all old stuff. Because time does not forgive, it gets harder to see old musical groups as they get even older, and what has happened to me is that I have only been able to see remains of the complete groups.

Concerning Queen, because the vocalist Freddie Mercury died in 1991, I was only able to see the remaining members (Brian May and Roger Taylor) in a tour with Paul Rodgers back in 2005. It was still a great concert (one of my favorites ever) and I managed to get some backstage passes so i met Brian, Roger and Paul :)
The Beatles have the same problem of not being complete, both John and George have died, and only Paul and Ringo remain. I saw Paul McCartney in concert in 2004 in the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon.
I was only missing seeing some "remain" of Simon & Garfunkel, and it happened yesterday.

Both Garfunkel and Simon are still alive. However, they haven't been performing much, and when they do it is not together, so it is hard to seem them nowadays playing as a duo.
Garfunkel schedule a couple of concerts here in the States, and yesterday he played in Staten Island (one of the 5 boroughs of New York City) and I was there.
It was a great concert: the venue was small and cozy and he played some of the biggest Simon & Garfunkel hits (The Boxer, Sound of Silence, Bridge Over Troubled Water, among others).
Garfunkel also seems like a very simple and humble person, and he managed to connect well with the audience.
It will be a night to remember!

Spring Break in Brazil

Hello all!!

Last week I didn't have classes, it was our Spring Break (I know, it's not Spring yet, but that's what they call it!).

I went to Brazil to work on a project for school. I was basically helping an American organization create a network of companies in Brazil that in their business strategy engage with people of low income.
I had meetings there at banks, at a cosmetics production and distribution company and at a pulp and paper company. These meetings were all in Sao Paulo.

Of course I had some time to have some fun. For that I got out of Sao Paulo, and went to Rio de Janeiro and to Santos.

Night out at the Sky Bar in Sao Paulo, with the people from the class "Brazil Global Immersion" from our school - these guys had classes about the Brazilian economy, and then went there on a field trip

Me at the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro

Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro

By coincidence my friend Ibrahim from Lisbon was working in Rio, my friends Sanja and Dragana from Croatia were also there on holidays so we all went out together for dinner

Rashi and Mara from my working team at the Sao Paulo market


The highlight of the trip was going to Santos (on the coast of Sao Paulo) and meeting the family I have there. I had only seen them once and it was 17 years ago in 1992.
On my side is my cousin Chico (he is a 1st degree cousin of my mother). On his left hand side is his wife, Rosemary. The two other girls are their daughters and my cousins. On the left side is Mariana and on her right is Luciana. Luciana is pregnant and is having her baby Luisa in June.

Skiing in Vermont

Two weekends ago, me and some friends went out north of NY, to Killington in Vermont for a great weekend of skiing.
I had only skied twice in my life before, and the last time was four years ago. I was not sure if I would be able to put the skis on and go down the slopes without killing myself. Although all the fears, everything turned out alright and it was a great weekend.

Me and Gal at the top!

This is the Chalet where we stayed. Although we are 8 in the picture, we were 22 people there.

Winter doesn't want to got away

Two weeks ago we saw some signs that Winter could be on its way out, and the cold weather would go with it.

Well, it just got back this week!
Outside, right now, the temperature is at -8C, but with the wind and humidity it feels like -17C.

My older brother keeps getting older

My brother, Joao, just turned 32 last February 17th.

Diana, him and I had a nice birthday dinner in Union Square.