Face the facts...

Okay, I am in love with Discovery Atlas on the Discovery channel. I know I talked about this show last week, but at that point I was only in the infatuation stage. But now I know it’s true love. Discovery Atlas and I are going to run away together and live happily ever after. Well, that’s my dream – the reality is that this show is only airing during the month of October, so by November, my true love will be gone. Leave it to an atlas to run away as soon as someone starts getting attached…

Last night’s show was about Brazil, and I learned some things I never knew before. For instance – while I’ve always known that the Amazon is considered the largest river in terms of volume, I didn’t know that new satellite imagery suggests it might also be the LONGEST river in the world. Longer than the Nile. There are people who live in houses along the Amazon who have supplies delivered by boat on a regular basis, but instead of paying with money, they generally trade other goods. They’re so far away from any sort of “civilization” that they really have no need for money. I found that interesting, just because it’s hard to imagine living a lifestyle where money has that little meaning.

But in contrast, Brazil also has some of the largest cities in the world. I believe they said the population of Sao Paulo was 18 million. And the gridlock at rush hour is so bad that the wealthier inhabitants take helicopter taxis to get to and from work. At any given time, there are 20 to 30 helicopters in the air over Sao Paulo. How crazy is that? New York City only has about 8 million people, and traffic is bad enough there. Although if you ask Rick, the worst traffic ANYWHERE would have to be in the thriving metropolis of Byram, New Jersey. Population 8,000. Oh, curse the crazy madness of the infernal stoplight on Route 206 by the ShopRite. Sometimes it takes minutes – yes, MINUTES – to get through it. Every time I’m stuck in three lanes of crawling traffic on I-35, or braking for yet another chaotic merge in one of the innumerable construction zones around the city of Austin, I thank my lucky stars I’m no longer in Byram, where that single stoplight was the bane of my existence. (Right about now, Rick is getting really annoyed with me…) :)

I also found the show’s cinematography around Brasilia to be really interesting. I knew a little bit about Brasilia before I watched the program last night – how it was built for the sole purpose of being Brazil’s capital city, and how it’s laid out in the shape of a bird, with a lot of modern architecture. But it’s “modern” in the way “modern” was perceived by people who lived in the past. It has that outdated-now-but-probably-looked-cool-then appearance – sort of like when you watch old episodes of Star Trek, and observe how they attempted to make everything look futuristic… but now everything looks sort of clunky and silly and out-of-place. But maybe a city that looks out-of-place is even more interesting than a city that blends in with its landscape…

Anyway, I believe next week’s show is about Australia, so I’ll be looking forward to that. And next time I visit New Jersey, I know what I have to do – find a helicopter to shuttle me around. Anything to avoid that stoplight in Byram…