Tom Jobim – According to his Music

Last week a friend of mine invited me to go to movie, A Música Segundo Tom Jobim (The Music According to Tom Jobim). I have to admit that as much I like Antônio Carlos (“Tom”) Jobim– whom in Brazil is pretty much universally revered as the country’s greatest composer of all time – I was in the mood for something with a little more dramatic punch than a musical documentary with its tried-and-true chronological format of interviews with talking heads alternating with the usual collage of rare live footage, concert performances, and still photographs. more >>

Summer of Scam: Beware of Card Cloning

One day in December, I logged on to my Citibank account and was shocked out of my mind to discover that I had $3 in my checking account and $9 in my savings account.

Only 5 days earlier I had gone to a local branch of HSBC in the upscale Salvador neighborhood of Graça and withdrawn money from my US-based Citibank account (I do this frequently on account of the fact that much of the freelance work I do is U.S.-based for which I’m paid in lowly greenbacks). At the time, my combined balance had been in the four digits – not one! more >>