Re: <eyebeam><blast> Internet, modernisation and net.art

[Milton Machado <mmachado@dircon.co.uk>]

Insertion Into Ideological Circuits (a title borrowed from Cildo
Meireles)

In 1970, the artist Cildo Meireles printed information and/or political
opinions on Coca-Cola bottles, which by that time circulated on a
deposit system in Brazil. Invisible messages such as ‘Yankees Go Home’
silkscreened in white paint on the transparent glass  would only
reappear when bottles were refilled to be sent back to commercial
circulation, Coke duly providing the background. ‘Insertion Into
Ideological Circuits’ was the title of the series.

Excerpts from 2 articles in FOLHA DE SAO PAULO, Internet edition
4/Feb/98, roughly translated:

Singer created style with soft passionate voice O MAXIMO

On the evening of 14 May 1931, Silvio Caldas came on the stage of Teatro
Recreio, downtown Rio, to sing Faceira, a song by Ary Barroso.
Frantically applauded, he had to come back on stage for 8 encores. It
was his first hit.

Silvio had  perhaps the longest career as a singer in the history of
Brazilian popular music. Since his professional debut in 1927 and for
the next 7 decades, he never stopped singing. Silvio Narciso do
Figueiredo Caldas was born in Sao Cristovao, Rio de Janeiro, on 23 May
1908. He became a mechanic apprentice when he was only 9. He was also a
first rate fisherman and a gifted cook. In 1927 he met the tango singer
Antonio Gomez, the Milonguita, from whom he would learn his perfect
breathing technique.  In the 30s, Silvio Caldas sang in virtually all
Rio radio stations... he was one of the few singers of the so called
golden era to survive the pre-bossa-nova modernization in the 50s and
the movement that would reveal Joao Gilberto and his disciples.  His
secret was always to restart everything again. Examples: his second
marriage when he was 56; his brave reaction to the tragic death of his
son in 1974, which he attributed to god’s will; and the birth of his new
son, when he was 70.

Silvio Caldas  dies in Atibaia  at 89
PEDRO ALEXANDRE SANCHES
The carioca singer Silvio Caldas died yesterday at 5:30pm, in Atibaia
(north of Sao Paulo) where he lived for the last 40 years. He died of
respiratory insufficiency at the age of 89. The singer was interviewed
by Folha de Sao Paulo ten days ago, in the farm where he lived with his
wife Miriam, 50, their children Roberto, 21, Camila, 20, and grandson
Vinicius, 2. Debilitated after a surgery on the knee following a
tumble,  he was forced to quit drinking and he stopped feeding himself.
Two years ago ... he revealed to FOLHA he had already drunk eight doses
of whisky, and promised he would have eight more before the end of the
day. ... [8 encores?]  In the last months of his life he hardly spoke,
limiting himself to basic sign communication. He would make signs for
positive, or more or less with his hands, and spent the whole days
laying in his bed. I’m not sad, I’m ill. I feel as I had mumps, said he.

...The farmhouse where he lived went to auction several times, and is
now for sale, to settle a R$295.000 [US$270.000] old debt with Caixa
Economica Federal he never could pay off. ... The initial debt was
R$44.000, the rest came from interest rates, changes in currency...,
says Miriam, his wife.  Caldas lived on a R$900 monthly pension as a
retired composer and on R$2500/semester  copyright payments.

A professional singer since the 20s, ... Caldas recorded songs by
Pixinguinha, Noel Rosa, Ataulfo Alves, Pedro Caetano, Tom Jobim and
Vinicius de Moraes. He sang in duets with singers such as Elizeth
Cardoso and Carmen Miranda. He had been away from studios for the last
19 years, after having launched dozens of 78rpm records and LPs.

--------------------------------

DE ESTRELAS (song by Silvio Caldas,  lyrics by Orestes Barbosa) Minha
vida era um palco iluminado/E eu vivia vestido de dourado/Palhaco das
perdidas ilusoes/Cheio dos guizos falsos da alegria/Andei cantando a
minha fantasia/Entre as palmas febris dos coracoes. Meu barracco la no
morro do Salgueiro/Tinha o cantar alegre de um viveiro/Foste a
sonoridade que acabou/E hoje, quando do Sol a claridade/Forra o meu
barracao, sinto saudade/Da mulher, pomba-rola que voou/(...) A porta do
barraco era sem trinco/Mas a Lua furando nosso zinco/Salpicava de
estrelas nosso chao/E tu pisavas nos astros distraida/Sem saber que a
ventura desta vida a cabrocha, o luar e o violao.

Starry Floor My life was a bright-lit stage/Always, I was clad in
gold/Clown of illusions bygone/Covered with the phoney bells of joy/I
used to sing my fantasies/To the feverish clapping of hearts/My bungalow
on the Hill of Salgueiro/Was happy as a cage of birds songs/You were my
sonority that was gone/Today, when sunlight/Furs the floor of my hut, I
miss/The fleeing woman-my dove flying away/(...)The hut’s door had no
locks/But the Moon opened holes in our tin roof/Studding our floor with
starlight/And you, distracted would stride on the stars/Unaware that the
ventures of my life/Are the woman, the moonlight and the guitar.

Milton Machado
artist
PhD candidate Goldsmiths College




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