Fado is a Portuguese musical genre which originated in the 1820’s in Lisbon. It has been enjoying a revival over the last twenty years, one of the most prominent recent voices being that of
Mariza. In 2006 Simon Broughton did a documentary exploring the roots of the music. Via youtube, here is
Mariza and the Story of Fado.
[more inside]
posted by winna
on Apr 6, 2013 -
13 comments
"Twelve years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine or heroin go unindicted and possession is a misdemeanor on par with illegal parking.
Experts are pleased with the results."
[more inside]
posted by vidur
on Mar 27, 2013 -
125 comments
78 78s - In Search Of Lost Time - is a streaming mix of beautiful 78s from around the world, collected and curated by Ian Nagoski. "I started sifting through boxes of junky old 78s that no one else wanted about 15 years ago, and almost right away, I made a rule: Anything that wasn't in English, buy it."
[more inside]
posted by carter
on Jan 29, 2012 -
15 comments
The Digital Version Of The Nativity Story, told through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, Foursquare, Amazon and more.
[more inside]
posted by ericb
on Dec 16, 2010 -
18 comments
The Portugal experiment. On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal
took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including
cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal
framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not
“legalized.” Thus, drug possession for personal
use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited,
but violations of those prohibitions are
deemed to be exclusively administrative violations
and are removed completely from the criminal
realm.... The data show that, judged by virtually every
metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework
has been a resounding success. Within this
success lie self-evident lessons that should guide
drug policy debates around the world. (
pdf of complete paper)
[more inside]
posted by caddis
on May 22, 2009 -
94 comments
What is a Spaniard?: Forcibly Crossing the Cross, the Crescent, and the Star
"The conversions came at the end of one of the most successful Jewish periods in human history... Their success led them to call their land Sepharad, a name from the book of Obadiah that implied that Spanish Jews were the successors to the Jews of Israel. This world ended in 1391."
"At the appointed time, those children who were not presented voluntarily were seized by the officials and forced to the font.... In many cases, parents smothered their offspring in their farewell embrace. In others, they threw them into wells in order to save them from the disgrace of apostasy, and then killed themselves. Sometimes, even old men were dragged to the churches and forcibly baptized by over-zealous fanatics,... In all other cases, the unwilling neophytes, some mere babies, were distributed throughout the country, as far as possible from home, to be brought up in Christian surroundings."
[more inside]
posted by orthogonality
on Dec 18, 2008 -
28 comments
The Quinta de Regaleira, completed in 1910, was the
dream palace of the Portuguese millionaire Antonio Agusto de Carvalho Monteiro who was a devotee of mysticism and lost arts. The
enormous gardens include a
Templar initiation well,
underground labyrinths,
hidden doorways, fantastic
grottos, lookout
towers, and of course the palace itself (
hunting room, outside
detail,
gargoyles) More photos
here and
here.
posted by vacapinta
on Aug 18, 2007 -
21 comments
THE EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL POLITICS. University of Washington Professor George Modelski is credited with developing the concept of world leadership. There have been five world leaders: Portugal, the Netherlands, Great Britain I, Great Britain II, and currently the USA. Some scholars in political science and history are pointing towards U.S. decline and a takeover by a
United States of Europe...
posted by j-urb
on Dec 12, 2005 -
46 comments
Fernando Pessoa was a Portuguese poet and mastermind. He created and maintained several heteronyms who each had their own distinct writings, went on to lead interesting lives, and even interacted with each other. All in the public eye.
The truth about their existence was only discovered after the death of Pessoa and the subsequent discovery of a
trunk containing writings from all of them.
posted by ODiV
on Sep 12, 2003 -
14 comments
Too Much, Too Young Or Too Good To Be True? Fingers crossed!
Cristiano Ronaldo is a charming and talented 18-year-old Portuguese football player, from a very poor family, who has just been bought by Manchester United for almost 20 million dollars/euros, a record amount. Given the No.7 shirt previously worn by the likes of George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham,
his first game at Old Trafford has earned him
rave reviews in the British press. Forgetting the football for a moment, how difficult is it for a teenager to deal with expectations this high and success this early in career and life?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Aug 17, 2003 -
24 comments
You Are Cordially Invited To A Night Of Fados. It's Saturday night; you're hidden deep down in one of Lisbon's
fado houses; so pour yourself another glass of thick, blood-red wine; cast your mind back to loves lost and the memory of joys that will never return; take out your most tear-absorbent handkerchief and prepare to indulge in the most melancholy, poetical and maudlin of all
urban songs: Lisbon's
Fado... [
More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Apr 26, 2003 -
32 comments
Which Country Has The Most Beautiful Women? The best quality of life? The most divorces? The most mobile phones? The highest cost of living? Which one is the most visited? Rank the bastards! After browsing through this website, I'm sure the conclusion that we're all living
in the wrong one is inescapable. The statistics and sources may be questionable, but there sure are
a lot of interesting lists here! Meanwhile my own country, Portugal, has just been denounced as the the
laziest in Europe and the
booziest in the world. They lie! They lie! [
Actually, it's a fair cop, guv. And it was nice to drag down the Brits with us.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Apr 17, 2003 -
53 comments
Perhaps This Public Image/Persona Thing Has Gone Just A Little Too Far: Luís Campos Lopes, the manager of the Portuguese football team
Vitoria de Setúbal has just been
sacked for "projecting a negative image of the club". [
Link in Portuguese, but please read on.] The reason? Just watch the photo-sequence in the main link. Luís Lopes had trouble putting on his Setúbal vest during a crucial game with Benfica! I.e. the powerful sports media in Portugal and Brazil have had a riot with the photographs and the poor widdle proprietors were embarrassed. So? He may not be a brilliant manager - but isn't this blatant
lookism? Isn't "image" becoming much too big for its boots, as it were, in professional sports? [
Here is the only English language reference I could find. Please scroll down to "Luís Campos".]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Mar 31, 2003 -
26 comments
Where To Stay In Portugal And Spain: You could do worse than try
Secret Places, an ambitious and delightful website that has the advantage of emphasizing unusual and charming accommodation. I don't know about Spain, but the places they recommend in Portugal, the Azores and Madeira are top notch and not at all touristy. These are the fairly priced rural inns, private homes and hotels we Portuguese repair to when our batteries need recharging. Although Portugal is a big tourist destination and there are loads of accommodation websites, I'm sorry to say that this is the first I've seen that's any good. I'm not so sure about the other hotel chain websites highly praised in a
New York Times article [
registration required; with pop-ups], although the
Ian Schrager Hotels [
with pop-ups] one is quite attractive (in an early Nineties way) and very efficient reservation-wise.
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Nov 26, 2002 -
37 comments
So Exactly Why Doesn't Nicole Kidman Want This Commercial To Be Shown In The U.S.? Here in Portugal, for instance, you can't blink without seeing the ruddy thing. Movie stars increasingly have a very profitable but extremely embarrassing advertising life which they're understandbly keen to keep secret from the American market. Wonderful websites like
Japander (
do check out Jodie Foster's endorsements of the Honda Civic Ferio and Keri Cosmetics, won't you?) conspire to keep them deservedly humble. So why
does this double standard exist? Do these movie stars really think that globalization (not to mention the Internet) is just a myth?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Oct 5, 2002 -
31 comments
Psychiatrists Not Against AIDS In Portugal and other European countries, although the State provides free needles, free medically-assisted clinics where addicts can shoot up in a safe environment, it's the medical establishment's attitudes that are holding up the fight against AIDS. A very recent case: despite free, no-questions-asked methadone(a well-known heroin replacement)most psychiatrists refuse to prescribe it.
Is this just a European problem?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Dec 1, 2001 -
6 comments
