One of the many corrupt churches in Brasil

Ok, so this is the backdrop, an interesting/disturbing fact about the Universal Kingdom of the Church of God. . . it is a corrupt, pentecostal, prosperity theology-teaching church, started
by a Brasilian man named Edir Macedo. The long and short of it is that the church targets the poor strata of society by constructing a huge building (with big-screen TVs, luxurious stained glass windows, and the like) in the middle of their neighborhood, luring them in, persuading them to start paying strict tithes, `serving` the church as custodians, and so on. They are promised good reward for they`re service, and many do come to have more faith, responsibility, and morals, but the question is where does their money go? It goes to Macedo and the other leaders who exploit it and build more expensive buildings to attract more and more people (not only the poor but the middle class too). They tell the people that their money is later burned (literally) as a sacrifice to God. Macedo had actually been arrested for exploiting people`s money like this, but the other leaders must have lead the people to think his imprisonment was a type of persecution for the work of God. The church continues to spread across the world, all the while setting up camp in poverty stricken areas. The website for the one in the US is in Spanish, which comes to show who they`re targeting.

I guess the story part of it is that Sid and I ended up visiting to this church, `cause it`s only 3 blocks from his apartment building. I had asked Sid to take me there to see this monstrosity. He agreed to take me on one condition: that he wouldn`t speak at all, and that I would have to answer anyone (in my broken Portuguese) who might come up to talk to us. He wanted them to think he was a foreigner, in case they tried to convert us, brainwash us, and steal our money. I was a bit nervous about this, but we went for it.

We arrived and went inside. The interior was a huge space, probably taking up a fourth of the block, if not more. They have their own giant parking garage. Hundreds of chairs, numerous services each day, we arrived at the end of one. Everyone was just mingling, talking, sitting quietly, etcetera. We weren`t there a full minute before 2 guys with huge smiles and nice clothes came up to talk to us, just like we had expected. We soon had them convinced that both of us were foreigners, and that I was the one to talk to, as opposed to Sid. They started speaking in English to us (though they weren`t very skilled), and asking where we were from, what we were doing in Porto Alegre, etcetera. Now I didn`t want this questionnaire to go too far, for fear that it might lead to talking about Sid`s native heritage, residence, and so on. They spoke good enough English for me to understand, but red flags had gone up, and I started pretending that their English sucked, that I couldn`t understand a word from them. In response, they started grabbing other smiling people who they knew would be competent enough to break the language barrier of which I had convinced them.

At this point Sid spoke up and said to the 2 men (in English), "Sorry, we don`t want
your money-washing. Peace," gave them the peace sign, grabbed my arm, and rushed out of the joint.

My last glimpse before we turned to leave was of a smiling lady`s face turning into a confused grimace. She didn`t know what to think, and she was probably a little disappointed she couldn`t practice her English on us. Haha, I felt a little bit bad at the time. but it`s quite hilarious now. I also thought Sid`s mannerisms--the curt remark, the peace sign--were funny.

"Sid, I don`t know if money-washing is a real term," I told him.

Sid and I walked back to his home, talking about the whole experience. We walked by several homeless people here and there who were passed out on the sidewalk with their faces smeared into the sun-hot concrete. Sid concluded our adventure with this thought: "You know, people do benefit from the church, have more faith, and improve their financial situation, but the saddest part is that they`re doing the right thing in the wrong place, the right kind of faith in a corrupt church."

Stop-motion in progress

This was just a quick animation we did right in the driveway
at Santa, for an Adidas campaign we`re working on.

Messin' around

A lot of my internship is playing around with 

different programs and techniques in imagemaking

and animation. I just started doing some wacom

tablet practice, which I had never done before. 

Yesterday the guys at Santa told me they'd like

me to do some drawings/animation for the Adidas

Original campaign we're working on, which I was 

pretty excited about. They might want me to do

it digitally, so I'm going to have to go practice on

the wacom some more. Still feeling awkward with it.

The Studio at Santa (two posts)

An image I created for the heck of it (click/check it)

Santa's neighborhood (and a Brasilian tree)

Sid and I. Pretty dangerous if you ask me.

Entrada de Santa! (Santa's entrance)

A beautiful house

Nice touches

My desk! and the two 3D guys, Daniel (in the foreground) and Lucas (background). I go out to lunch with them and Sid just about every weekday.
Sid at work! Doing a sick animation job.

Yoyoing - we do it a lot

Shadows
Sid and his super powers
Gustavo
Hanging out
 The villa where we played

Goot doot 2

I'm still working on this guy. Working with different layers and such.

I see a lot of this type of thing here:

murals (an aardvark shooting a laser beam?)

Piche-São (Territorial Graffiti writing - the bottom word spells 'weed' and in the middle you can see the representation of marijuana plants, which Sid and I found pretty funny)

Street Art (this one in particular was created by someone at Santa motion graphics)

VW vanagon!

Broken sidewalks/Run-down buildings

Rough Goot Doot

I did this today. I figured I'd post my work
at the end of the day whether it's done or
not. This Goot has goot a long way to goot,
but it's coming along. Learning to animate
via masks.

I'm still not understanding much of the
portuguese. People are talking, singing,
teasing, etcetera in the studio all day long,
and I'm mostly zoned out and working on
After Effects. I did pick up 'Saluda!' though,
which means 'Bless you' (after someone sneezes.

Learning After Effects

I had my first day at Santa today, and this
is what I made. It took quite a while, but I
think I'll get faster at it. . .

Pictures

From NYC (1)






















to an aerial view of Rio de Janiero (2)



























to the city and streets of Porto Alegre. (3 - 5)

Hey Folks

Arrived in Brasil New Years Day, exhausted.
'been resting up, preparing to start my internship on Monday.
Yoyoing a lot, hanging out, sketching, listening to new music
from my friend Sid (aka Rodrigo), and studying Portuguese.
Fun times.

Pictures of my trips to come!