Gangues do Rio por John Lee Anderson

As belezes e horrores do Rio na New Yorker nas lindas fotos de João Pina:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2009/10/05/091005_audioslideshow_riogangster

"Blognovela" na New Yorker: Uma Cervejinha com Obama

ly 27, 2009
A Beer with Obama

Sergeant Crowley suggested that he and Professor Gates come to the White House to share a beer with the president. Mr. Obama then conveyed that idea in his phone call with Professor Gates.
—The Times

The Oval Office. Late. President Obama sits across from Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Officer James Crowley, who share a couch. They sit amidst several empty beer bottles. No one’s wearing shoes.

CROWLEY: Can I say something? And I mean this. Ya know what’s awesome is pizza.

GATES: Pizza is awesome. Why is it so awesome?

OBAMA: We could go get pizza right now. I have a plane.

GATES: That’s awesome.

OBAMA: I could pick up the phone right now, get the plane, we could go to Italy for pizza.

CROWLEY: You’re amazing. And really good-looking.

GATES: You are good looking. You’re a very good-looking man.

OBAMA: I like giving speeches. I like press conferences.

CROWLEY: You give a lot of press conferences. Maybe, like, too many?

GATES: I think he’s right. Maybe don’t give so many.

OBAMA: But you should see the speeches I have lined up. They’re all so…emotional. I’ve got a new one on infrastructure that quotes Rosa Parks for no reason. But it makes you cry.

GATES: My ex-wife is white.

OBAMA: My mother was white.

CROWLEY: There are times I wish I was Jewish.

GATES: I know exactly what you mean.

CROWLEY: It just dawned on me. I’m the minority in this room.

All laugh.

GATES: (laughing, leaning over to hug Crowley) You’re insane…

Crowley laughs and loses his balance, falling with Gates off the couch onto the floor. They’re still laughing as Secret Service officers enter the room through three different doors. The President waves them off. With some trouble the three men get to their feet and back onto the couch.

OBAMA: We should get more beer.

CROWLEY: We should definitely get beer.

GATES: I really like beer. Are we going to Italy?

OBAMA: So hey. Hey. Seriously. What happened?

CROWLEY: What? You mean with the thing?

OBAMA: Yeah.

CROWLEY: Oh. I thought he was a burglar because he was black.

GATES: And I was a jackass because I assumed he was a racist Irish cop.

CROWLEY: He was so angry. He said mean things about my mother. I thought he was a racist.

GATES: And I thought he was a racist. So I said mean things about his mother. Then he arrested me because I annoyed him.

CROWLEY: I arrested him because he annoyed me, which was stupid. But it didn’t help that you called me stupid.

OBAMA: That was stupid of me.

CROWLEY: Turns out we both love ballroom dancing and bridge.

GATES: We should play bridge now. We need a fourth.

CROWLEY: No. What we should do is watch “Tommy Boy.”

GATES: Did you just say “boy?”

All laugh.

GATES: If Chris Farley had been black do you think he still would have been overweight?

CROWLEY: No. I think he would have been thin but not funny.

OBAMA: I think he would have been funny, thin, and Swiss.

GATES: The Swiss aren’t funny.

CROWLEY: That’s so true. Why is that?

GATES: Have you ever been stopped by the police just because of your color?

CROWLEY: I was on Cape Cod one summer and really really tanned, and I was stopped by the police. They thought I was Brazilian but we ended up just laughing about it and I remember thanking my lucky stars I wasn’t Brazilian or black.

OBAMA: That’s tragic.

GATES: This is what I’m talking about.

CROWLEY: I guess I’m lucky I’m white. Except, you’re both rich and famous.

GATES: You think we’d be famous rich guys in Switzerland? The Swiss are afraid of black people.

CROWLEY: Some people are afraid of cops.

GATES: Are people afraid of black cops?

OBAMA: No.

CROWLEY: No. They love them. There are times when I wish I was black.

OBAMA: Ya know what was a good show was “The West Wing.”

CROWLEY: That show was so good.

GATES: I own it. On DVD. I own it. We could go to my house and watch it.

CROWLEY: We could break into your house and watch it!

Crowley and Gates laugh and fall onto the floor again. The door opens and a waiter brings in a tray of beer. Obama slumps into his chair, legs out. Gates and Crowley lie next to each other on the floor, staring at the ceiling. All are quiet for a time.

CROWLEY: (crying) Ya know what I think is just wrong?

GATES: What?

CROWLEY: That this is called the White House.

GATES: (to Obama): This is a good man. This is a lovely man.

CROWLEY: I mean…why? Why do we have to judge and hate based on race? Why can’t we love?

GATES: We should get tattoos.

They struggle to sit up, lean against the couch.

CROWLEY: I’m sorry I arrested you because you were obnoxious. There’s no law that says that a Harvard professor can’t be obnoxious in his own home.

GATES: And I’m sorry I called your mother a Bangkok whore. I have no idea where your mother is from. I was exhausted from the flight from China and was annoyed that you were a white man.

OBAMA: What have we learned?

GATES: That we like beer.

OBAMA: What else?

GATES: If you’re going to break into your own house go in through the back door?

CROWLEY: If you’re going to arrest someone on false charges plant something on them to make the charges stick?

OBAMA: Good. We’ve made progress here today.

GATES: Well, I think we all know—all of us here—that people are the same wherever you go.

CROWLEY: There is good and bad in everyone.

GATES: We learn to live …

GATES: …we learn to give each other …

CROWLEY: …what we need to survive together alive.

OBAMA: Favreau needs to hear this. This is good stuff.

Gates and Crowley stand and move to the center of the room.

GATES: (to Obama) Watch this.

They begin ballroom dancing.

More beer arrives.
Posted by John Kenney
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Blogcademia

Um bom blog acadêmico, indicado pela New Yorker:

http://www.elifbatuman.net/


Aqui no Brasil é difícil indicar blogs de acadêmicos ou professores.

De cabeça, só me ocorre o www.minhaliteraturaagora.blogspot.com e o leiturasdogiba.blogspot.com

A maioria dos meus colegas acadêmicos não tem blog, nem site nem posta nada em blog, embora a gente convide. Não fazem como o artigo da New Yorker ("Blogcademia") comenta que seria aconselhável: escrever em vários registros.

O Musical do Bailout, na New Yorker: humor sobre a crise

Fragments from Bailout! The Musical

BEN GREEMAN, DA NEW YORKER ON LINE

A wallet is on a desk. A DOLLAR BILL pokes his head out.

DOLLAR BILL:

Let me introduce myself

I’m a dollar bill

Once I was the source

Of unlimited goodwill

People all around the world

Thought I was fantastic

The planet ran on paper

Before it ran on plastic

But now trust in me

Has been badly eroded

Thanks to lousy credit

I’ve been overloaded

Next to him, a CREDIT CARD stirs.

CREDIT CARD:

I couldn’t help but overhear

And I have to say I’m shocked

Why the hell would you blame me

And not blame common stocks?

Wasn’t it the market

That fell down on the job

By appealing to the basest

Instincts of the mob?

A STOCK CERTIFICATE rises off the desk nearby and unfolds.

STOCK CERTIFICATE:

Do you really think

That this bad feeling and rancor

Ever would have happened

If not for the bankers?

They’re the ones who led us

Into rank overextension

The way that they have acted

Is beyond my comprehension

The DOLLAR BILL, the CREDIT CARD, and the STOCK CERTIFICATE squabble. The DOLLAR BILL raises his voice. The STOCK CERTIFICATE threatens the CREDIT CARD. Finally, a nearby CHECKBOOK speaks up.

CHECKBOOK:

All of you, stop. Will you, please?

I don’t want to see a fight

The truth is that you all are wrong

And also that you all are right

This fix we’re in, you see

Is unimaginably complex

Monies are all intertwined

Y regresses onto x

Lehman, Merrill, A.I.G.

No one knows a thing, you see

Let’s all relax. Let’s take a rest

The coolest heads can think the best

I have a film I want to show

O.K.?

DOLLAR BILL:

O.K.

CREDIT CARD:

O.K.

STOCK CERTIFICATE:

Let’s go

The CHECKBOOK pulls down a movie screen from the ceiling and, with the CREDIT CARD’s help, starts a projector. An image of Treasury Secretary HENRY PAULSON appears onscreen.

DOLLAR BILL:

Who’s the old guy?

He looks smart

CREDIT CARD:

Shh…the movie’s

About to start

HENRY PAULSON speaks.

HENRY PAULSON:

Come now, travel with me

Back to 2001

Remember the big boom?

That was an awful lot of fun

Alan Greenspan warned

About the bursting bubble

He lowered all the interest rates

To try to forestall trouble

That led in turn to a big run

On purchases of real estate

Offset falling stock prices

With property? It all seemed great

But then the subprime borrowers

Started to default

And our proud economy

Began to grind to a halt

The DOLLAR BILL snores.

CREDIT CARD:

What the hell?

The dollar’s snoring

DOLLAR:

Sorry, guys

This movie’s boring

JOHN MCCAIN appears onscreen.

CHECKBOOK:

It’s going to get exciting quick

That guy with white hair is a maverick

Onscreen, JOHN MCCAIN speaks.

JOHN MCCAIN:

I’m suspending my campaign

To focus on finance

This is a pressing, dire

Unprecedented circumstance

My friends, I want to tell you

I’ll work until the crisis ends

Nothing is more important

I hope you understand, my friends

The first debate must wait

The economy is failing

And sadly that will mean

Delaying Biden-Palin

BARACK OBAMA objects to the postponement.

BARACK OBAMA:

What? You’re kidding

You wouldn’t dare

I’m going down to Mississippi

I’ll expect to see you there

DOLLAR BILL:

I don’t get it at all

My friends? Mississippi?

This movie is weird,

It’s disjointed and trippy

The CHECKBOOK stops the projector.

STOCK CERTIFICATE:

Come on, man. Don’t stop the show

Dollar can’t shut up, you know

CHECKBOOK:

I won’t restart the projector

It’s off for the time being

I want to know that Dollar

Understand the things he’s seeing

DOLLAR BILL:

I understand—I’m sure I do

A financier once dropped a shoe

The second one was due for dropping

But in the meantime, he kept hopping

CHECKBOOK:

I have to say that I’m not sure

I understand your metaphor

CREDIT CARD:

This is insane

Let me explain

The CREDIT CARD turns to the DOLLAR BILL and speaks in a soft voice, trying not to lose his temper.

CREDIT CARD:

Ben Bernanke

Met a bank he

Didn’t like

Then another

And another

He called Mike

Bloomberg, and Bob Dole

Buffett, Nunn, and Volcker

Bernanke and Paulson then

Set up some very high-stakes poker

They bet that they could patch

The holes in the dike

With half a trillion dollars

And perhaps a small tax hike

They thought that now

Was the time to strike

Ben Bernanke

Met a bank he

Didn’t like

DOLLAR BILL:

O.K., O.K.

Let’s watch some more

I promise you

That I won’t snore

The CHECKBOOK restarts the movie. In it, President GEORGE W. BUSH is presiding over an emergency meeting.

GEORGE W. BUSH:

Let me start by saying

That I don’t understand

A single thing about

The Invisible Hand

Or rates, or banks, or credit

Or mortgages or loans

But I know where my big desk is

And how to use the phones

And that is why I’ve called you

Here this afternoon

We need to fix this problem

And we need to fix it soon

A panic now is creeping

Over city, state, and town

If money isn’t loosened up

This sucker could go down

The group turns to WARREN BUFFET for advice, since he is massively rich.

WARREN BUFFET:

This economic Pearl Harbor

Has cooled off investors’ ardor

Everything must be adjusted

We need some help or we’ll be busted

A $700 billion bailout is proposed. REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP is displeased.

REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP:

We remain staunchly defiant

Government can’t get too giant

Seven hundred billion is an awful lot to spend

When we don’t even know how deep the cracks extend

The Presidential candidates weigh in on the political implications of the crisis.

JOHN MCCAIN:

Party lines are unimportant

We need a united front

BARACK OBAMA:

So why’d you try to sink the debate?

It felt to some like a self-serving stunt

SARAH PALIN:

Look! It’s Russia, over there

Have I mentioned that I hunt?

A compromise is reached. HENRY PAULSON and BEN BERNANKE announce it.

HENRY PAULSON:

Our commitment to financial health

Will soon restore the nation’s wealth

BEN BERNANKE:

It should recover fairly briskly

If not you’ll find me in the whiskey

The film ends.

DOLLAR BILL:

Where’s the rest?

I want to see how it turns out

CHECKBOOK:

Well, it isn’t over yet

We’re in a time of fear and doubt

A major economic funk

DOLLAR BILL:

I have to say, that movie stunk

The DOLLAR BILL, the CREDIT CARD, the STOCK CERTIFICATE, and the CHECKBOOK decide to play cards instead. The DOLLAR BILL, surprisingly, wins most of the hands.

Abandonada em Bagdá

Imagens de uma peça interessante:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/02/11/080211_betrayed?xrail