Well, Saquarema doesn't often make it into the international news, let alone into Hollywood movies, but this time we scored on both counts!!!
The star of this story was busted in Lake Shopping Mall, where I go on the piss now and again, right here in good ole' Saqua'!!

Justices turn down appeal in 'Alpha Dog' case
Story Highlights
Jesse James Hollywood's lawyers say 'Alpha Dog' film publicity would demonize him.
Prosecutor in real-life case assisted movie's producers.
Case, and movie, involve a drug-related kidnapping and murder.
Hollywood could receive the death penalty if convicted.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court is allowing a prosecutor who helped in the making of the movie "Alpha Dog" to stay on the capital case on which the film was based.

Justin Timberlake starred in "Alpha Dog," the film based on the Jesse James Hollywood case.

Justices declined Monday to get involved in an appeal from Jesse James Hollywood, the accused mastermind of a plot to kidnap and murder 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz.
Hollywood -- his real name, says his family -- says publicity over "Alpha Dog" would unfairly demonize him before potential jurors.
The movie was released last year. Hollywood and his lawyers argue the power of popular films to influence the minds of the general public makes their upcoming defense all but impossible.
Hollywood is charged with heading a Southern California drug ring, and ordering the murder of Markowitz in August 2000. The boy's older half-brother reportedly owed Hollywood a $1,200 drug debt.
Hollywood faces the death penalty if convicted.
The justices' refusal to intervene now means Hollywood's criminal trial can begin early next year as scheduled.
While police were investigating Markowitz's murder and building their a case against Hollywood and his accomplices, the suspect fled the country. He was found five years later in Saquarema, Brazil, and extradited to the United States in 2005. He is now 28 years old.
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During this time, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Ron Zonen was contacted by movie producers, and he agreed to turn over to them probation reports, police files and other "sensitive" information on the case. He was also an unpaid consultant to the film. Zonen defended his actions, saying he was trying to help publicize the international manhunt for Hollywood.
The movie starred Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Justin Timberlake and actor Emile Hirsch in the role modeled on Hollywood. The fictionalized plot deals with a young drug dealer (named Johnny Truelove in the film), with a circle of friends, one of whom commits murder on Johnny's orders.
In real life, four of Hollywood's associates have already been convicted in the case, including triggerman Ryan Holt, who sits on California's death row.
The state's highest court ruled earlier this year that Zonen can remain on the case, but it criticized some of his actions.
"This is not to say that Zonen can or should escape censure," wrote Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar. "We find his acknowledged actions in turning over his case files without so much as an attempt to screen them for confidential information highly inappropriate and disturbing."
Hollywood's attorneys said that Zonen was unethical and that publicity from the movie tainted the jury pool. In addition to Zonen, they want the entire district attorney's staff removed from the case. "What we're saying is, when you do something like that, that's a conflict of interest," lead attorney James Blatt said. "You shouldn't be on the case."

AS IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY AND SONIA'S TOO WE HAD A PARTY SO I THOUGHT I'D BETTER POST SOME PIX...
And then I thought, well that's a bit sparse, so I've added some random bits too...
Latest news is that we've just had the Brasilian municipal elections all over the country...
I expect the goings on are fairly typical here in Saquarema...
...in which case WE'RE FUCKING DOOMED!!!!
In brief, 3 or 4 months of convoys of hundreds of nutters on momobikes, in cars, on lorries, beeping , screaming, shouting, waving, bannering, soundsysteming and anything annoying-ing...
Then 2 days of silence, then last Sunday, the voting...
The result...I think the polite term is "impasse"...
The winner is allegedly Dalton Borges...the previous Mayor...
But, he's been disqualified as he was found giving out food for votes (I heard it was cash actually, 10 reais (£3.00) per vote...)
So the Vice Mayor, Franciane Melo, who recieved a similar number of votes is in...or is she???
Supporters of both have been arrested for fighting in the streets in the last couple of days...
So last night, Paulo Melo, UN-coincidentally Franciane's husband, and State Legislator for Rio state, goes on his own radio show (on his own radio station no less) and announces that all the funds he was going to see diverted to Saquarema for much needed improvements (this included asphalting 250 kilometers of dirt roadways...have you seen mine???) are going to be RE-diverted elsewhere, because if the voters here in Saquarema don't want to vote for his wife Franciane, they're not getting any money for the town...
I ended up speechless, and had to go for a drink...
They're not getting my bloody vote...
Any of 'em.
I haven't got one.

Also on the corruption front, here's a pic of Pierry, my friend Sonia's 20 year old son who died, cause unknown, in his mother's arms in hospital here in Saquarema last October.

It now turns out that the Brasilian Navy, his erstwhile employer, had diagnosed him with throat cancer, but had not told him or his relatives, had not treated him for it during his time in the Navy's hospital in Rio, and had not informed the local hospital here in Saquarema.

Sonia is in the process of taking it to the courts, and has procured documentary proof, mostly through a sympathetic office worker at Navy HQ. The only possible reason seems to be budgetary, in which case there most be other similar cases, certainly in The Brasilian Navy, and possibly throughout the armed forces.

Oh yes, it's all one big fucking laugh here in sunny Brasil.

(It's actually been dull, cold and raining for weeks.)

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO OR ANY RELEVANCE WHATSOEVER...
Some pix of my flat before, during and after renovs in 2004.

Living room strewn with derelict belongings...airing cupboard and kitchen beyond...with handy internal porch with three doors...but note the original Georgian arch and alcoves mmmmmm...











The open plan kitchen a la Bath city Council 1974 ish...very collectable now...
The quaint walled garden...I'm sure I remember having children...

I heard council contract scafflers out there one day discussing whether my flat was inhabited...
"Not unless it's that tramp in the old trainers..."
I don't wear trainers...
Demolition in full swing...the council had done a great job...they'd just smashed their way through any Georgian features and rammed in partitioning to hide the mess of pipes and conduits and stuff...
But open plan becomes a tangible thingy...

RENOVATE!!!!

Living room, archway and kitchen...
I designed an epic kitchen, using Ikea boxes and bits, but with a custom built stainless top and a modular sink from Finland and all kinds of shit.
Everything came from eBay, from the fridge freezer, dishwasher, sink, taps,hob and ovens to the door handles and cupboard door catches.
Likewise the sofas, from eBay Belgium, the beds, the shower/jacuzzi/steamer unit and the Philip Starke knockoff bathroom sink.
And the dining table and chairs.
And my bum.

Here's Jonno pratting about in the kitchen whilst seriously overcharging me!

He used to moan on everytime I picked something up on eBay...
"More fucking eBay shit..." he'd quip.






And here's Graham in the not yet lovely bathroom...with the not yet lovely jacuzzi/steamer /everything thing...
Jonno really loved that one!!!
Late at night whilst showering, they say you can still hear him swearing as he takes the skin off his knuckles yet again...
"Fucking eBay shit..."

BUT ALL THINGS MUST COME TO AN END, AND SOME ARE DISCRETE AND CHARMING OPEN PLAN MODERNIST STYLED GEORGIAN FLAT CONVERSIONS...
And , of course, some are not...

Hmmm, both discrete and charming!

ART!

And illuminated shelves...from eBay of course...

Kitchen still with blue wrappers on...

Bathroom...all from eBay but the bog (B&Q).

MORE PONCED UP FLAT PICS...

CAN YOU TELL WHAT IT IS YET??

FAR OUT (DISPLAY CHEAPO) HABITAT STONE TABLE AND STOOLS (IN FIBREGLASS)

BIG ART!

This is amazing.."Lee vs Lotus"....8 foot by 4 foot sheet perspex with vinyl overlays and texturing...
The lamp was a modification (by me) to an award winning Spanish design.
All the lighting for the flat was bought on eBay, mostly from Spain.

This I bought from the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath.
I was looking to ad some colorful art to my very "white in three shades" flat...but when I saw this it had to be...white art for a white flat...

AT LONG LAST...SOMETHING NEAR THE PRESENT...
MY SPECIAL HAIRCUT FOR MY BIRTHDAY...
A MOHEEK!!!!


And a special dins on my birthday courtesy of Sonia and her niece Amanda who is now living with her...










I was ill once, (some would hold more than once) in 2002, and spent a couple of weeks sofa ridden and getting into modern design, paintings, furniture and architecture...(thence came shop and flat refurb)...
Eventually I was so taken with old Mondrain that I thought I'd have a go at abstraction...taking it down a little...so I bought some pastelly things and did a series of views of my view from my sofa...each a little more abstracted than the last...this was about as far as I got...entitled "STIJL LIFE NUMBER 3".

OUR HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Sonia and I are 100 years old!!!

This is the cake to prove it...
But of course it didn't prove it for long!










Here Sonia displays the people she has magically made appear before our very eyes..











Poufffffff!.

The Barbecue crew!!

What a crazy party!!!
Outdoors, by the lagoon, barbecue...
Freezing cold, murderous winds, ice cold lager...
Saved only by the (my) introduction of frozen vodka shots...
Vodka, the winter warmer...
Now competing favourably with the other Russian import of choice here, the Kalashnikov.

Yes, that's what I'm talking about...
I made two enormous sponge puddings, one apple and one pineapple...
This lot ate the bloody lot...
I got a round of applause...
They got indigestion.

That's Lau (who used to work for me on the house) and wife in foreground...
I think he's already looking for the Rennies.
I have never seen this man before in my life.

Nor him neither. .

PARTY GETS PROGRESSIVELY MORE RAUCUS.

Pamela is deep in thought whilst performing a modern ballet piece.
Either that or the vodka has gotten to her.
Either way she's definately free forming.
The sturdy Amanda on the left, Sonia's niece.
Group photo opportunity...
With drunken English twat messing it up...
"I've fallen..."

Well, it was very late by this point in the proceedings...

FINALLY THE POOL IS WARM-ISH ENOUGH TO USE AGAIN...

This was Sunday last...
The pool has been really cold since april, anmd I've barely used it.
The temperature at night is always cold and the ground must retain it, and so the pool stays cold, even on days when the general temperature reaches 90 or 95.
But after a couple of humid days the pool was ok, though not how you say, warm...
Not enough for floating asleep in at least, one of my regular more strenuous in-pool activities.
The Naked Chef.
Well, partially.
Making a rice bol.

Ditto.

Carlos taking a few notes.

Like don't get really fat.