Book Zero · Memoir
Some memories are incomplete. Where an entry has an Open line, readers who were there are welcome to help fill it in. Every entry comes from facts the author stated. Each line is tagged: Document (stated, backed by a record), Stated (told by the author), Family (family account, not checked), Computed (calculated, method named), Open (not yet known).
Friday 29 February 1980 · 00:48
DocumentBorn at Hospital Felício Rocho, Belo Horizonte, on Friday 29 February 1980 at 00:48.
OpenWhy his parents chose that hospital.
ComputedVenus was the evening star on the night of 28 February, about 43° east of the Sun at magnitude −4.0, setting around 20:30 local time (calculated for Belo Horizonte with the ephem library, approximate). Friday is Venus’s day.
FamilyThe family connects the birth to the carnival period. The official carnival days that year were 16–19 February and Ash Wednesday was 20 February (computed), so this rests on the family account of festivities running on.
Year not yet stated
StatedThe family moved to Brasília, where his brother and sister were born, from 1982.
OpenYear of the move; the siblings’ birth dates; why the family moved.
1985 or earlier (before his 6th birthday in 1986)
StatedThe family moved to a new apartment in 104s before he turned 6. He met most of his childhood friends there.
StatedThe grandparents came over for Christmas in the new apartment.
StatedMemory: he was into toys at the time, got the one he wanted, and remembers getting up to find it: The Flash, from 1986, the hero who ran really fast; the figure had a mechanical movement, you moved its legs. (He remembers it as a Marvel hero; The Flash is a DC Comics character.)
StatedOne friend is the exception: they went to school together at about age 5, before the move, and are still friends.
OpenWhich Christmas (1985, or 1986 if the toy is from that year), the toy's maker and product line and whether the memory is from that Christmas, the exact move date, what “104s” refers to (likely a Brasília block, not confirmed), friends’ names (only with their agreement).
1989 (age 9)
StatedA sudden interest in Petrobras and oil platforms, and he competed in a science fair.
StatedHe studied at Objetivo at some point, and says that was this period.
OpenWhether the science fair was at Objetivo, the project he entered, which fair, the result, what sparked the interest, how long he attended Objetivo, and the school he attended before it.
1993
StatedMoved to CASEB, a public school.
StatedMemory: he was about six months ahead of the group. The teacher said things he already knew, and he would finish the teacher’s sentences.
OpenHis grade, why he changed schools, how the teacher and classmates reacted, and what happened next.
1993
StatedAround this time he studied at the Escola de Música de Brasília and met the people he played music with.
StatedHe studied musicografia rather than an instrument, on a full-time schedule of four classes, in a program that leads to a bachelor’s degree. The four classes: canto coral (choral singing), rhythm percussion, music theory and musicografia.
OpenWhether he played an instrument with the group, the band or group, the members (names only with their agreement), how long he studied there, whether he finished the program, the first time they played together.
1994
StatedBy 1994 he had decided to play with the band instead of continuing the music school program. Punk rock felt like his thing.
StatedThe band was called MOFO.
StatedThe kids from CASEB made him a bass player.
StatedHe revived the Grêmio Estudantil (student union) at CASEB, served as its cultural director, and planned a concert for the Festa Junina.
StatedThe concert happened, his parents saw him play, and he remembers it as funny.
StatedStudents had been forbidden by the military government to organize.
StatedThe UNE (União Nacional dos Estudantes, the national student union) had lapsed and had returned. When the student movement was reformed, it led to Caras Pintadas.
StatedThere were no links between the scene and the student movement. Punks and skaters were not friends, and did not necessarily talk to each other, just because they skateboarded or played in a band. Bands shared material so they could pass their message. In the 90s, bands mostly wrote to each other with cassette tapes, which is why the sleeves carry the addresses and phone numbers of the people behind them. Bands also wrote to venues, trying to tour, to papers and zines, and to TV stations.
StatedMemory: another band played too. He also remembers a kid they called Turco, who he doesn’t think was Turkish. He can’t remember the other band’s name.
StatedMemory: the Festa Junina was pretty fun. At that party he met a red-haired girl who went to the same school in the afternoon program. He wishes he had kept a picture or an album of those days.
OpenThe band’s members (names only with their agreement), when the Grêmio at CASEB was last active before he revived it (the military government ended in 1985, as far as I know, so it may have lapsed afterward), who else served with him, the other band’s members (the name is not remembered), what Turco’s role was (band, friend or classmate) and why he got the nickname, what was funny about it, what happened with the red-haired girl, whether he left the music school completely, the first bass he played, which tapes he sent or received, and who he wrote to, and whether any photos exist (parents, classmates, CASEB).
StatedReflection: being a teenager was the time to make mistakes, so he was a punk trying to err a little, and he had to learn a lot from his own actions.
1995 (age 15)
StatedHe met his first love.
OpenNothing is asked here. He has chosen to keep the rest of this part private.
1996 (age 16)
StatedA new band, S.L.U. (his essay O Futuro Em Suas Mãos says it formed after M.O.F.O.).
StatedS.L.U. is the band. He worked hard to make it work. The first band he played in was a school, because punk is a place to learn; the second time he was teaching others, sort of passing the torch.
StatedBy then he had done commercials and been a movie extra.
StatedBy then he had been working for a couple of years for his mother.
OpenWho he was teaching in S.L.U., how S.L.U. formed and with whom (names only with their agreement), what the commercials and the film were, the kind of work he did for his mother, and whether S.L.U. formed in 1996 or earlier.
1997 (age 17)
StatedIn 1997 Atitude, a compilation (coletânea) with S.L.U. and other bands, was released. S.L.U. and the other bands on it went on to perform on TV, and S.L.U. was featured on the first of many appearances.
StatedThe TV station had them do playback, so they “performed” instead of playing the music.
StatedThey were there to share a message. There was a quick interview in which they got to speak and answer questions, and then they pretended to play. He turned the bass the wrong way, as a joke, and the whole band started doing macaquices (monkey business, clowning around).
StatedHis essay says S.L.U. tracks appear on the Atitude compilation.
OpenWho released Atitude, how many bands were on it, which TV station and program, how many appearances there were, what the message was, and what “the wrong way” meant (held backwards, upside down, or other). The other bands and their members are named only with their agreement.
Summer 1997–98 (age 17–18)
StatedHe worked at Redley Records for a summer, at the Conjunto Nacional (a shopping center in Brasília, as far as I know).
StatedIt was a record store, the nicest and biggest one in town. It was a cool place to work, and people he looked up to from other bands worked there with him.
StatedHe worked in sales. He would tell people “listen to this” and “listen to that”, and would take someone who had stopped by upset with life and turn them into a music aficionado.
OpenWho those people were (names only with their agreement), and what he took from it. The months are my reading of a Brazilian summer, December to March; he gave only “97-98”.
1998 (age 18)
StatedHe opened Ganesh Emporium, his own store, and hired his first employee.
OpenWhat the store sold, where it was, how he started it, who the first employee was (a name only with their agreement), and how long it lasted.
1998
StatedHe graduated from high school and applied to study in 1999.
OpenWhich school he graduated from (CASEB or another), and which universities he applied to and how it went.
September 1999
StatedClasses started in September 1999. He attended two schools: Geologia (geology) during the day, at the UnB (Universidade de Brasília), and Tourism at night. The night school was UPIS, where he earned a bacharelado (bachelor’s degree) in Brasília. He used credits from the UnB there.
Stated“I could have had the time of my life there, but too many friends, and a large campus, made it more difficult to study. I had a private place to study at night where all my classes took place on the same building and the convenience of getting that degree while I went to work made sense since I was going to be a parent.”
StatedMemory: at the UnB, if he didn’t stop to say hello to anyone he could just make it across campus in time to sit for the next class, with no food and nothing else. But there were friends everywhere, for blocks, all trying to get him to chat. He was tempted. There was a swimming pool to take a dip in. He was going to find it awesome, and he did, for one semester.
StatedHe gave the UnB a document, a procedure permitted in Brazil, asking to return to the program at a later date to finish it. He thinks the UnB may have held his place for a few years, but is sure it doesn’t excuse you forever. He did not return to the UnB: he went to work and went to school (at UPIS) instead.
OpenThe field of the UPIS degree (read here as Tourism) and the year he finished it (after this timeline ends), how many credits transferred and from which UnB courses, what the document was called (trancamento de matrícula, enrollment suspension, as far as I know) and when he filed it, whether the UnB ever held his place and for how long, which of the two the quote refers to (read here as the UnB for the large campus and UPIS for the single building), how he balanced both with Ganesh Emporium and teaching, and how each one went.
1999
StatedHe started teaching at Yazigi, at 104s.
StatedHis essay says he began teaching English in Brasília at nineteen, which matches 1999.
OpenWhat he taught and to whom, how the job came about, how he fit it around Geologia by day and Tourism at night, and what teaching was like for him. Yazigi is a language school chain, as far as I know.
1 January 2000 (age 19)
StatedThe year 2000 began with Y2K, and he remembers that New Year as huge. By age 19 he was tired of partying. He says the big difference of growing up in a place like Brazil is that he started very early, so by the time his teens were over he felt like an old man.
OpenWhere he spent that night, who was with him, and what he remembers of it.
27 July 2000 (age 20)
StatedHe became a father on 27 July 2000. Vic was born in Curitiba, Paraná. He calls his child Vic, the name Vic liked being called, and he respects that decision.
OpenWhat he remembers of that day, and where he was when Vic was born (he met Vic in August, in Curitiba).
August 2000
StatedHe met Vic in Curitiba, Paraná.
OpenWhy he was in Curitiba, and what the first meeting was like.
September 2000
StatedBy September Vic and Vic’s mother had moved to Brasília, and he and Vic were together there.
OpenThe circumstances of the move, and what those first months were like. Vic’s mother’s name is known to the author and stays off the page until she agrees. The timeline ends with the year 2000.
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