Caroline Kahl

Ole Ola - Futebol bonito!

A musical appetizer for the Soccer Word Cup, released by Farout Recordings:
'Ole Ola' is aimed at both fans of football and Brazilian World music who will be looking for that authentic soundtrack to this summer's World Cup. Recorded in Rio during the carnival, ‘Ole Ola ’ is a celebration of football and samba and features some of Brazil’s finest percussionists on one album: Dom Um Romao, Ivan Conti (Azymuth), Wilson Das Neves (the Ipanemas), Dom Chacal, Cidinho Moreira and members of Imperio Serrano, Rio's most traditional samba school.
The vibe is full-on batucadas, funky swinging sambas, traditional football songs plus slamming electronic remixes from Da Lata, Osunlade, Fauna Flash and Zero dB.....
Unable to find the album here in Brazil and to trace down my favourite song from the album : Na Batida Agogo (Osunlade Remix). Listen to another Osunlade song, one of my favourite ones. Download Osunlade feat Nadirah Shakoor- Tree of life.mp3

Soccer Bandwagon

For somebody who does not really care about soccer it is fascinating to see who joins the World Cup soccer bandwagon. Even Goldman Sachs who recently published a report called World Cup and Economics 2006 "switched its attention from gold, shares and the dollar to which emerging economy has the best chance of lifting the trophy in Berlin on July 9". It suggests there is a limit to how much overlap there is between the beautiful game and the murky world of finance.
Curious to learn more about the "Footballing equivalents of the Brics " or "The impact of the World Cup on trading activities"? Checkt out the FT FAQ.
If you are living in Brazil be prepared that business and life may come to a standstill on certain days. Do not forget to check out the different opening hours of your bank.

Copa do Mundo, Soccer and Technology

The number of my posts about the Soccer Wold Championship scares me, for I am just the typical woman who does not care much about that sport but enjoys listening to men talking enthousiastically about it (and not understanding a word when the name dropping starts but admiring the sparks in their eyes when it comes to their favourite teams). And I only started understanding the offsite rule when I went diving into the ocean in Ipanema one stormy day with Fabian and Stefan, and Stefan got hit by a mega wave.. cause he was offsite.
Technologically speaking it is just amazing what I read today: vai ser um show de alta technologia! The first Copa in high resolution transmitted for the widescreen format around the globe through fibre optic lines. My beloved Brazil just did not define its standard HDTV yet, what a pain! But lucky you subscribers of Pay TV NET Digital or Sky cause they are based on digital transmission.
But subscribers of Brazilian operator TIM and its service Tim TV Access will be able to assist the games on their cellphones.
Besides, Deutsche Telekom is one of the offical sponsors and is responsible through its IT branch T-Systems for the hi-tech supply and infrastructure in the stadiums.
In order to provide a worldwide estimated audience of 3,5 billion people with information, 15.000 journalists will be covering the event really professionally equipped.
Each one of them gets a laptop with Wi-Fi connection, 1-2Mb bandwith to send home the latest news about the game, with the stadium in Berlin itself offering 3.000 access points around the green grass. WOW!

The Art of Soccer

"Ball im Kopf - Kult ums Kicken" - an exhibition in Hamburg of designers fotographers and stylists and else about soccer, a most entertaining overview of the way in which the cult of football dominates the world.
My preferred "piece of the exhibition": those sexy high heels by Freddy Contreras (pic by Angela Franke), But gotta admit: maybe not really suitable and comfortable to win a soccer game, but....maybe another goal ;-)
You find them at The Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe until Feb 26th.

 

Dancing Soccer

Famous Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker openend last Wednesday in Hamburg the official Artistic and Cultural Programme for FIFA World Cup 2006 (the part dance, performance, theatre). The performance Maracanã shows "16 Brazilian and German dancers, inspired by the fascinating world of football to make virtuoso encounters, enter into a racy, choreographic match."
You have until Feb 5th to see it in Hamburg at Kampnagel, and later in Cologne, Luebeck, Dortmund, Frankfurt and Ludwigsburg, Germany, then in Austria (Innsbruck and Graz) and Croatia ( Zagreb).

And once you go to Hamburg do not miss another highlight in the Museum fuer Voelkerkunde, the exhibition Brazil´s Modernismo in the early 20th century. Many of the 80 artworks are for the first time shown out of Brazil.