Tuesday, February 3, 2009

--Brazil--

18 comments:

Cap'n Cornhole said...

That HOMBRE is livin' large. My hero.

Jet City Jughead said...

I love choppers, but there is a tiny piece of me that loves heavily accessorized vintage bikes. That piece grows just a little each year.

Helge said...

My Parents used to live not far from where that was shot.

Gomez said...

Epic shot, talk about your harlequin romance novel.

t said...

that guy's got it all

Diesel said...

GREAT photo. It reminds me a little of Danny Lyons "Crossing the Ohio River". He looks very content - as he should.

Diesel

Daniel K said...

Hey,Max...HOw do you got that shot from BR?Awesome!!!!
Dan from BR...

Edu Mendes said...

Yo, Max, do you have any more shots of this guy?
Next time I'm in Rio, I'll pass it around the old timers in the area, see if anyone knows him. Diesel got that right, It's a very Danny Lyon shot, great days of no helmet laws...Edu, from Brazil, sinistros-forever.blogspot.com

Davidabl said...

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far,far away"
This dude's life was WAY better than that guy in
"Crossing the Ohio." To be young,rich in Rio De Janeiro, in the swingin' 50's...

Shrewgy said...

I believe that he is riding past the Lagoa de Botafogo and in the background you can see the first rock which is Pedra de Urca and the larger one is the infamous Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf). This is the one that is in the James Bond movie Moonraker with the tram that Jaws (Richard Kiel) has a memorable fight scene with 007.

"Mother" said...

If this dude ain't getten" Laid " id be surprised !

"Mother" said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Davidabl said...

Shrewgy or Edu would know more about it than I,
but from what I've heard from my ex- and the ex-in-laws. the late forties, the fifties, and the early sixties
were pretty cool times in Rio. The guy was probably livin' larger than his grandchildren can!
The guy in "crossing the Ohio river' was living a life
alot more like the kids In Max's "Bomberos" pic than
like this guys life..

Edu Mendes said...

Rio was absolutely fantastic in the 40's 50's and 60's there's even a book called "1958 the year that should have never ended" about life in Rio. From mid 60's onwards, the crime started getting out of hand and from early 70;s onwards, it just escaladed to a state of almost civil war, with drug lords shooting each other between the hills, overlooking the city.
A good movie about it is "Cidade de Deus"
As a matter of fact a frind of mine has a HD shop in Cidade de Deus, one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Rio.
There's some pic of him on our blog sinistros-forever.blogspot.com

Davidabl said...

hi,Edu
I was in Rio once about '92.
As I recall "Cidade de Deus" was called that because
only God felt safe there!
You're not old enough to remember, but another
reason life changed in the 1960's was the military coup in 1964 against Pres.Goulart. A LOT of musicians
etc. went into exile,and a lot of people "became dissapeared."

Davidabl said...

Oh, and do you remember who wrote "!958" and if
it was ever translated into English? (I'm pretty much
illiterate in Portugese.)

Edu Mendes said...

Hi David, actually, the correct title is "FELIZ 1958: O ANO QUE NAO DEVIA TERMINAR" by Joaquim Ferreira dos Santos.
Unfortunately I don't think it was translated into english.
I was born 1 year after the military coup, but I remember it well for I have an uncle who was persecuted and had to run away to the US, where he ended up living for 25 years. It was crazy times, my mom had a couple of cousins who "dissapeared".
I wish I could go back in time to when this photograph was taken. I wonder what became of that fine dresser pan, it probably got chopped a decade later, hey, maybe that's my 52 pan!! hahahaha..

Davidabl said...

Thanks, took a look for it at Amazon.com and at
Amazon.co.uk. All the guy's books are currently out of print :(