OK, I'll come clean: This touring journal is getting boring. I've been stalling this post for the last couple of weeks. This will be my last On the road piece. Here are the other ones:
On the road (Part 1)  |  On the road (Part 2)  |  On the road (Part 3)

Paris, 22nd and 23rd of October

For us these are the two big shows! The two shows that make us a bit nervous. It's because, in a bastard son kinda way, we feel like we're playing at home. Paris, our musical maison. We're playing both nights at the illustrious La Maroquinerie. This would be the Parisian equivalent of the old Bassline in Melville, Johannesburg, where we started the band.
We're rooted here for a couple of days so we get to indulge. I try to spend as much time in my room as possible but I often get side-tracked by dinners and strolls. Discovered a couple of really cool new places, shops and restaurants. Paris is a hunters city. Forget those guide books, or you'll end up at the Molin Rouge.
We were scared about the attendance rate but both shows were amazingly populated and the audience really treated us like we were local heroes. Here people know our songs. We're in the zone! I better be careful, it might quickly sound like more than it really was. Well, merci Paris. À la prochaine fois.

Magny Le Hongre, 24th of October

One hour drive from Paris and we arrive in a small town that only made it to "the proverbial map" because it's next to Disneyland Paris (previously known as Euro Disney). We're staying at a place packed with families who will wake up über early tomorrow morning, drunk with excitement fueled by the prospect of spending their day with Mickey Mouse, Snow White, and the rest of the Disney posse.
These Sunday shows are dangerous. We're usually exhausted from the weekend and the crowds are in full Sunday mode, which means we have to be extra energetic to pick them up. We're playing at a stylish, Scandinavian looking place called File 7. Some French Gangasta rappers are opening for us. Should be educational.
Got the new Foals EP. It Includes the song Miami, from the TLF album, plus two new studio songs (listen below). These guys are basking in the glow. Right now, even if they tried, they wouldn't be able to play a wrong chord on an untuned Guitar!

The_Forked_Road.mp3

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The_Forked_Road.mp3 (6.45 MB)

Wear_&_Tear.mp3

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Wear_&_Tear.mp3 (5.04 MB)

Nantes, 26th of October

Nantes is on the very Western end of France. A cool city made famous in the Indie world by Beirut (the band), thanks to a catchy song with the same name (listen below).
The reputable Olympic is our playground tonight. Been hearing about this place for awhile. It's sadly re-allocating pretty soon.
We played our usual set, but this time looking forward to tomorrow, a day-off. Not the greatest of onstage mind frames. The great Ben Sharpa, also from South Africa, played just before us. It was nice to talk shop with him after the show.

Spent most of the following day indoors. The rainy weather outside helped. Later I went to see The American by Anton Corbijn. I won't write more about this movie because it doesn't even deserve an SMS.

Nantes.mp3

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Nantes.mp3 (4.39 MB)

Feyzin, 28th of October

Flew here. One of those uneventful flights. Yes, let's keep them that way… Oh, except for the fact that this is my 15th flight with Air France this year. If you're an avid frequent flyer you'll know this means one thing: Silver status! Yes, give me those Business class luxuries now! Please?! No. Now I need to be a Gold member? But, but… I don't understand. Can I at least get an aisle seat?
I think I just had my first make belief conversation with a Check-In counter person.
The show is at L'Epicerie Moderne. Right now the building is beautifully covered with fallen Autumn leaves.
 A really nice project called Peter Solo graced the stage just before us. What a great African influenced Groove Band, with sounds that resonate kinda like Victor Uwaifo.
We had a nice and relaxed set. Me and Tumi played Good Cop/Bad Cop with the audience. It worked like a Swiss watch. I was the Bad Cop. The crowd even made up a little song with two words: Boo and Tiago. It was pretty fantastic!

Pantin, 29th of October

There isn't much to say about this day except for the fact that the Tumi and the volume show was explosive! Man, people loved this show. Not sure why. There was even a girl who was doing a sort of Krumping thing to our music.
After the show the chef made a traditional South African dish for us called Bobootjie. She wanted to surprise us and got the recipe. It wasn't bad. It's actually one my favorite South African dishes. As far as local recipes come South Africa isn't the richest of countries. A local Sausage called Boerewors could be considered the culinary milestone.
Mozambique, on the other hand, is ultra rich when it comes to the world of culinary. I miss home. Caril de Amendoim...

Annecy, 30th of October

The last show on this Tumi and the volume tour. We didn't even give this tour a name!? Let's call it the Pick A Dream for a European Autumn Tour. What a crap name! The crew is exhausted, but the month flew like the Concorde, and we decide we should rather think about that. We played at Le Brise Glace. Not our finest hour. We had a difficult and emotionless crowd.
Back at the Hotel we follow last-night-on-tour rituals, such as exchanging stuff from each others external Hard Drives. Movies, Stand Up Comedy Videos or Music. Anything really.
I'm liking the new Kid Cudi album. It's called Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager, and it's the sequel for his debut album. (Below you can listen to the monster anthem that the Mr. Rager song is).

Mr._Rager.mp3

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Mr._Rager.mp3 (5.62 MB)

Marseille, 31st of October

Full circle! Tumi and the volume tour completed and I'm back in Marseille. Now I'm getting psychologically ready to start the 340ml tour. I have a few days to do this.
I make a conscious decision to stop this date for date journal thing I started. Wouldn't be able to keep this going until December.

I'll post a couple of pictures I've been taking while on the road.

Another week on the road. Still going strong. Other related entries:
On the road (Part 1)  |  On the road (Part 2)

Bordeaux, 6th of October

A not so early train from Paris to Bordeaux. Feeling rested. It's kind of a long ride. Long enough to watch a couple of movies. I watched the crazy Korean film Sympathy For Lady Vengeance by Chan-Wook Park. We're playing at Le Rocher de Palmer, a brand new super concert hall and we're inaugurating it! The French Slam and Hip-Hop duo Milk, Coffee and Sugar are sharing the bill with us. These guys are the best! The record is great and they've adapted it really well when performing live. It helps that they're touring with two very skilled instrumentalists to help them out on stage.

Here's a little guilty pleasure of mine, taken from the latest Lil' Wayne album, I Am Not A Human Being. Don't know why but I couldn't stop listening to the sexual sleaziness of this song.

I'm_Single.mp3

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I'm_Single.mp3 (6.35 MB)

Boulogne, 8th of October

A very long train to get to Boulogne. On the way there we got a call from our agents telling us that our show in Karlsruhe got canceled because the promoter didn't manage to sell enough tickets. Hahaha… I guess we're not that famous in Karlsomething. Nice, we get to stay an extra day in Berlin!
Boulogne is by the sea and right now it's incredibly sunny and warm. We're staying in a disgusting little Hotel, and we're playing at a festival called Festival Poulpaphone. We were surprised that our name was the biggest on the poster. It made it seem like we were the headlining act of the whole festival. We laughed and realized this was our first time headlining print on a Festival T-Shirt. We had a really nice show for an even nicer festival crowd.
Got to watch a wonderful one man show by a musician from Marseille called Mekanik Kantatik. The entire shows revolves around his Piano, and all the sounds he creates live come from that same Piano. Even the Drum beats! I shot a video of his performance with a little digital stills camera. (Watch below)

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Mekanik_Kantatik.m4v (35.71 MB)

Berlin, 9th of October

We've all been dying to do a show in Berlin. It's one of those cities I've been wanting to visit for as long as I can remember. Now I'm here and the expectation didn't spoil anything. This place is amazing. There's a sense that here you can be anything you like, hence the weirdos lurking around the city. For a European city, It's pretty lawless place. We went to a club late at night and everyone was puffing their cigarettes away. Inside the club! The DJ played like he was high on 15 different types of drugs!
Our show was one of the best of the tour, so far. People were explosively dancing to our songs. As if we weren't even there, only our music.
The following day I planned a full schedule of "out and abouting". Because it was Sunday I went and did what most Berliners do on a Sunday. I went to Mauerpark, a park in Prenzlauer Berg, occupying an area formerly enclosed by the Berlin Wall. The place was packed! Even though the park hosts the biggest second-hand market I've ever seen in my life, the most popular thing was by far an outdoor Karaoke session some Canadian guy started awhile back. This was also the biggest Karaoke crowd I've ever experienced! I got to see one of the regulars, an eighty something year old local who always does a German interpretation of Sinatra's My Way. (Watch below)

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My_Way.m4v (11.58 MB)

 Köln, 12th of October

What a great show we had in Köln! I don't know why but the crowd just ate it up. We had to do two encores, and they wanted a third one. We even improvised Story Behind The Paint, one of those forgotten songs.
Our backstage room had an old Piano and we played it like hell. We even made up a German Electro/Folk song with the one the few German words we all know, Scheiße (Shit).
Got the new Wild Nothing EP called Golden Haze. I Wrote about his album awhile back. Still jovially good, here's the last song on this new EP.

Vultures_Like_Lovers.mp3

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Vultures_Like_Lovers.mp3 (3.53 MB)

Strasbourg, 14th of October

We're playing at a venue called La Laiterie, alongside SMOD from Bamako, Mali. SMOD is 3 MC's, one of them the son of famous stage couple Amadou and Mariam. The line-up of upcoming artists in this place is amazing. I'm trying out a different Amp, a Vox Amp. It's shit!
The worst show of the tour. The crowd was nice and the place was pretty full but I had a terrible show, sound wise. Nothing worked and this is one to forget!

Nyon, 15th of October

Zurich, 16th of October

 An easy trip to get here. This is our first show in Zurich, the biggest city in Switzerland. It's quite cold, rainy and miserable, but it's comforting being in a four start Hotel. My room is beyond cozy! We're playing at an ultra legendary place by the name of Moods. I'm also doing a DJ set.
The show was very nice and it was fun to DJ afterwards. People we're getting down but I couldn't wait to get back to my room, specially because we have an übber early flight back to Paris tomorrow. Sleep is the word!

Ris Orangis, 17th of October

We get picked up at ungodly hours from our Hotel in Zurich and we get shuttled to the airport. We get on a small plane that lands in Paris not long after taking off. Tumi's 80's business suitcase with all his clothes doesn't arrive with us. Still inside the terminal, while we wait for his bag, me and him shoot a little "Rap Video" using the motion of the conveyor belt. I'll post it soon. His suitcase does not surface so Air France kindly follows procedure and gives him a little combo sac with basic toiletries and two white T-Shirts with the Air France logo. We leave by van to Ris Orangis, a bit outside Paris, with the Airline's promise that the missing bag would be hunted down.
We're opening for a Hip-Hop four piece from Florida called Solillaquists of Sound (SOS) at a place called Le Plan.
Contrary to the norm, the food at this venue was great. We had an OK show and the band that followed us also had a really nice set. Their Producer slash crazy MPC guy was amazing to watch, and probably is one of the best MPC jugglers out there.
The next day I had breakfast with the lead singer of SOS. We had a very long chat about music, touring, etc. I discovered that the band is made up of two married couples. An interesting way of touring.
Later Dave told us that his wife Heather is expecting. Mazel Tov! By the way, she has a pretty cool Blog.

Clermont-Ferrand, 19th of October

We get news of another canceled show. This time it's upsetting because I was looking forward to going to the beautiful city of Nice, in the South of France. Oh well…
Once again we're splitting the bill with SMOD, this time at a place called Coopérative de Mai, on Serge Gainsbourg road. I'm a sucker for Gainsbourg, that's why I'm going to end this post with one of his classics.
Jonathan Richman is playing here tomorrow. I didn't know he was touring. Would really like to watch him but we're jetting out first thing tomorrow morning.

L'Hotel_Particulier.mp3

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L'Hotel_Particulier.mp3 (7.44 MB)

Week number two in Europe and on the road. Summer is still around. For those who read entry number one, this is entry number two

Besançon, 30th of September

History tells that Julius Caesar tried to turn this little town into some sort of second Rome because of it's characteristic geographical surroundings. For military reasons he liked the seven mountains and the river that encloses Besançon.
We've been here before, and from what I remember our past shows had been pretty cool. At one of the shows we even made up a chorus with the word Besançon. This time we played inside this amazing theater house built in the late 1800.

We'll never fill it up but that's OK because the wooden floors are so old that the place can only host about 400 people. A singer from Germany called Jaqee opened up the show. Our show was quite week. I guess the energy wasn't there.
But we had fun after the show taking pictures of ourselves posing around inside this amazingly old building.

Annonay, 1st of October

  A new month, and this year is almost game over and thank you for playing! A super early morning to catch the train to Annonay, in the picturesque Rhonen Alpe region. Tonight we're playing in a really small club. We had a long soundcheck and we managed to fix some of the weaknesses in our set. Work in progress.
My Hotel couldn't have been more red! The show was really nice because it was really intimate and the crowd was seriously into the music. They didn't want to engage too much but they wanted to be taken on a musical journey, and they didn't really mind where.

Grenoble, 2nd of October

The last time I was here it was to play a summer festival but it rained the whole day so they canceled our performance. This time we're playing at a place called Maison De La Musique, one of those all about music and well equipped municipality buildings. Grenoble is an extremely beautiful city embraced by rocky mountains. It's the first time during this tour that I'm kind of sorry I don't have a few extra days off. The mountains are calling me. Even though it's still warm, the mountain peaks are covered with snow. The Hotel was pretty close to the venue so I walked back and forth most of the times, just to suck in that air.

Paris, 3rd of October

Back to Paris to find a perfect summer day in October. We have two days of leisure ahead of us. Note to self: Must use them wisely. From Wednesday our schedule will become torture. 

I'm on the road in Europe with Tumi and the volume. We have 24 shows in 36 days! Because it should be frantically interesting I decided to document it. Expect Mexican drama, American action, TGV pursuits, some people falling in love and others discovering that they're actually blood relatives. So, like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. This would be entry number one

Johannesburg, 22nd of September

If you live in Johannesburg, one of the recent pleasures of going on a long trip is the very first leg of the trip: Going to the airport. And this is because of a special train called the Gautrain. Thanks to the train, it now takes less than 15 minutes to get to the airport, no matter how bad the traffic is. It still has a few flaws but it's mostly an improvement on the life of your average globe trotter.
The airport was what an airport is. No possible cabin upgrades and we're on our way to France to catch it's last breath of summer and to watch the Parisian Sycamore leaves falling.

Paris, 23rd of September

Arrived in Paris at 6:30 in the morning. Right after one of those sleepless flights the one thing you don't want to hear is: Your connecting flight to Marseille has been canceled and you have to stay at the airport for "awhile" and wait for a flight out. The French are striking again, so like sulking school boys we swallowed our terrible faith and waited for the "Bus". After 10 of the most boring hours ever spent by any human being we finally got on a flight to Marseille. During the wait I got to watch an amazing movie by Sidney Lumet called Network. 

Marseille is still nice and warm. Tumi and the volume are playing at a local music festival called Marsatac. Went to the festival grounds to check things out. Watched a bit of Cibelle and Is What. Cibelle has gone a bit more Indie Rock, but she still has Brazilian sexiness oozing out of her every pore. I'm too tired to even listen to music. 

Marseille, 24th of September

After 10 deserved hours of uninterrupted sleep went to soundcheck and a few interviews. We're playing inside this huge Hangar and the sound is a nightmare, it bounces off every wall. On that stage the line-up is: Beat Assailant, FéFé, Tumi and the Volume, Talib Kweli, and Naive New Beaters to close the stage. On other stages there are artists like: Sage Francis, Lexicon, Mr. Oizo, Daedelus, A-Trak and many more. It's one of the last big Summer season festivals. 

The picture above is of me, backstage at the festival, sporting the official Marsatac bandana. Guess I was playing the part of the bank robber who just got caught by the Sheriff.
Got back from the festival at 3 in the morning. Our show was very full and our performance was OK but we're still a bit stage rusty. Missed most of the other shows. Talib Kweli was predictable. Féfé had a powerful performance. Right now he's hot French musical property.

Herblay, 25th of September

Another early morning. Sleep deprived we rushed to the Marseille airport. Catching a flight to Paris. Tonight we have a show in Herblay, outside Paris, at a venue called La Luciole.
Got to Paris comfortably because I had 3 seats for myself. When we got to Orly airport we were rushed into a big white van that drove for about an hour through heavy traffic all the way to the venue.
Nice little stage we played on. The place wasn't packed and it was one of those shows that you feel like you're being observed as opposed to listened to. But it was still interesting and we improvised quite a bit. At one point two local MC's jumped up on stage to do their thing. Before his verse, the first guy commanded Paulo to play something just by pointing at the Drums and shouting "Hip-Hop". The band that opened for us was called Und'chaque and they played an awesome set of intricate Rap Jazz. Great musicianship and quite theatrical performance, a la mode chanson Française.

Bern, 26th of September

After a fairly good night of sleep, early in the morning the same white van took us to the Gare de L'est in Paris. We got on the TGV heading towards Switzerland, more specifically, to Bern, the political capital. Train food, as always, leaves much to be desired. On a lighter note, just got the new Deerhunter album, Halcyon Digest. It's pretty nice and versatile. You can listen to a song from this album below.

Memory_Boy.mp3

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Memory_Boy.mp3 (2.46 MB)

It's already quite cold in Bern. The place where we're playing used to be a gymnasium. Now it's called Turnhalle, which appropriately means gymnasium. It's an old Gothic looking building that has recently been claimed by various Swiss artists. Many of the rooms we're turned into ateliers, music studios, etc. We're playing in one of these rooms. I'm also doing a little DJ set before and after our show.
The show was pretty all right. The crowd was strange because it was really hard for us to tell if they we're having a good time. At the end of the show they emotionally demanded one encore after the other. I guess they liked it.

Paris, 27th of September

Another early morning and another train, this time full steam back to Paris. We have a couple of days off. Dave Sitek, of TV On The Radio fame, just released his own solo album through Interscope Records. Each song features a different guest on vocals. Both project and album are called Maximum Balloon. This time he got a sound even closer to 80's Prince, something he was already moving towards with Dear Science, the third and last TV On The Radio album. You can listen to a song from this album below.

Tiger_(ft._Aku).mp3

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Tiger_(ft._Aku).mp3 (4.94 MB)

I'm trying to get tickets for The Morning Benders show here in Paris, this Wednesday. Here's my dilemma, in a Sergio Leone kind of perspective. The Good: They released one of my favorite 2010 albums, and it turns out that I'm not doing anything this Wednesday. The Bad: the show is sold out! The Ugly: They're playing at Noveau Casino, a nice and intimate little venue where I had a show with 340ml not too long ago. I'm going to try to hustle a way in.

Paris, 29th of September

Some pictures are really worth a thousand words. Damn it, I sang like a choir boy!

And a few other proverbs from the home front. Mr. Tenreiro added a few more by way of commenting on the original post. I decided to give special attention to the one's in Shangana (dialect from the Southern part of Mozambique) because they are both interesting and reflective of the Mozambican popular culture.

Hlanta u ta wongoliwa hi va wena
Vomita, serás tratado pelos teus / Vomit, yours (friends) will take care of you
*
Homu ya ku basa a yi na ntswamba
Vaca branca não dá leite / A white cow provides no milk
(Significa beleza sem virtude. This means beauty without virtue)
*
I timhondzo ta humba ta ku huma noñwini
São chifres de caracol que saem da boca / It's the Snail's horns coming out of the mouth
(Significa só tem garganta, não faz nada. This means all talk no action)
*
Ku thlanga ku vitana ku rila
A brincadeira traz o choro / Playing brings the crying

I feel obliged to write something about Luanda, the capital of Angola. It's one of those places packed with contrast and other interesting things to write about. I was there doing a couple of shows, and we were extremely well hosted, so I kind of saw the rust behind the paint but I only really experienced the thick coat of shinny colorful paint. What most people know about Luanda is that it's one of the most expensive cities in the world, well I'm here to narrow things down by stating that it probably rates among the 3 most expensive cities in our solar system. Theoretically it might have something to do with the ridiculously large sums of American Dollars floating around due to investments and other monetary injections. I think one would have to be at the Range Rover factory in England to see as many of those cars as the average citizen of Luanda sees everyday. Don't get me wrong, it's not just Range Rovers roaming the streets, there are millions of cars, probably because fuel is comparably cheap there, and this abundance makes traffic chaotic. (See picture below, and trust me, it gets much worse) Next to all these cars, the average inhabitant, when he's not inside a mini-bus, is walking like he has some place important to get to. It's that type of city.

But I digress. I didn't want to write about such contemporary African phenomena, I wanted to write about places, music, familiar accents, people, and other things that make this particular city so similar and yet so different from Maputo, the city where I grew up.
Besides the obvious similarities that stem from both countries having been colonized by the Portuguese, having achieved Independence sort of at the same time, and not much later gone through civil war for a good couple of years, Luanda, Like Maputo but in a much more steroid driven form, is currently going through a structural regeneration process. But many locals believe that this regeneration isn't necessarily a good thing. All sorts of things are happening, like old buildings being demolished to give way to Wall Street style skyscrapers. I understand the need to build new, but why not expand the city instead of getting rid of what's already there? People informally did it with the thousands of shacks that surround the city. Why get rid of things that have historical meaning? Crap, I'm doing it again! I really don't want to write about these issues.

OK, our first show was at a place called Miami Beach located on the Ilha de Luanda (Island of Luanda). It's not really an Island, it's a thin peninsula that became the entertainment strip of the city. I'll call it New Luanda, and it caters for tourists and locals who are financially privileged. It's still a pleasant place to spend a few hours having a drink looking at the ocean. Many drinks later you might even feel like you're in the real Miami. The other end of the spectrum is the Elinga Teatro, the second venue we performed at. I'll call it Old Luanda, and this one caters for a diversity of patrons, from poor to rich, black to white, tourists to locals, and that's what makes the atmosphere inside the place so splendid. It's a really old building under constant threat of demolition from the municipality. The people who take care of it have managed to fence off these attempts for about three years but everyone knows that sooner or later, under the hammer of the powers that be, those walls are coming down.
In the midst of the surprising turnover our show had we spotted a couple of Angola's most gifted MC's, together they're a collective know to the world as Conjunto Ngonguenha. The Conjunto is made up of: MC's Keita Mayanda and Ikonoklasta, MC/Singer/Musician Leonardo Wawuti and MC/Musician/Producer Conductor, of Buraka Som Sistema fame. Many of the songs also feature the talented MC K. It's relevant to mention them not only because they're full of talent and their music is really pleasant and inspiring, but because they've designed a lyrical Satire that unfolds like a movie, helping anyone who's curious to know more about Angola, it's good things, bad things, the day to day life, the funny and the sad. Because of this and more, to me they offer, alongside a select few others, the best contemporary Hip-Hop made in Africa right now. Yes, the formula is so well crafted that it applies to most African countries. I know the template works for Mozambique because we share many of the same truths and lies. Unfortunately the music loses most of it's charm if you don't understand Portuguese. (Below you can listen to two of their songs)
I better finish this post before it gets out of control again and because this has become much longer than I originally planned. Sorry, and by the way, If you like what you hear you can download their debut album here, at least while the link is available.

É_Dreda_Ser_Angolano.mp3

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É_Dreda_Ser_Angolano.mp3 (5.73 MB)

Os_4_Elementos.mp3

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Os_4_Elementos.mp3 (6.85 MB)

* The pictures are courtesy of the internet. The songs are courtesy of Conjunto Ngonguenha

This has got to be one of the greatest sports photographs ever taken. The most remarkable thing is that the average sports photograph relies on a fast trigger, on speed, on movement, on all these things we associate competitive sports with. But not this one. Yet this moment is as sporty and as competitive as it gets, it depicts the micro seconds after Muhammad Ali knocked-out Cleveland Williams in November 1966. Contrary to the front page newspaper picture of the instant where the famous Soccer player mid-air scores an amazing header in front of thousands, this fine tuned Boxing picture was carefully planned for weeks by Neil Leifer, and eventually snapped by him, standing closely next to the ring. If this was the cover art for a music record I would probably buy that record without even listening to the music.

It means: Proverbs and other things. Recently I was asked to find the portuguese equivalent to the english proverb What happens on tour stays on tour. I searched and asked around but couldn't find one. In the process I found millions of proverbs from all over the world, I even found a few I knew. It struck me that I knew them with slight variations, many with a Mozambican twist.
These are some of the sayings I grew up with, and most of them are still often used in Mozambique. The direct and supremely naive translation of these to English can sometimes be both hilarious and enlightening, particularly because many of these proverbs were originally "stretched" for rhyming purposes:

Amigos, amigos, negócios à parte
Friends, friends, business aside
*
Saco vazio não fica em pé
An empty bag does not stand
*
Entre marido e mulher não se mete a colher
Don't put a spoon between a husband and his wife
*
Mais vale um pássaro na mão que dois voando em vão
It's better to have one bird in your hand than two birds flying around
*
Cão que ladra não morde
A dog that barks does not byte
*
Nunca insultes o Crocodilo antes de atravessar o rio
Never insult the Crocodile before crossing the river
*
Devagar se vai ao longe
Slowly one goes far
*
Antes só que mal acompanhado
Rather be alone than poorly accompanied
*
Quem não arrisca não petisca
If you don't take the risk you won't snack
*
Meio-dia e a panela vazia
12pm and the pot is empty
*
De pequenino é que se torce o Pepino
The Cucumber must be twisted when they're small
*
Um homem prevenido vale por dois
A well prepared man is worth two men
*
A ocasião faz o ladrão
The occasion makes the thief
*
A Cavalo dado não se olha o dente
Never look at the teeth of a Horse that was given
*
Quem diz é quem é
The one who says it is the one who is
*
Junta-te aos bons e serás um deles
Get together with the good guys and become one of them
*
A união faz a força
Union makes the strength
*
Não vale a pena fugir com a rabo à seringa
It's not worth escaping with your bum/tail from the syringe
*
O Macaco quando não sabe dançar culpa o chão e diz que este está a abanar
When a Monkey doesn't know how to dance he claims that the floor is shaking
*
Quem rouba ladrão, tem cem anos de perdão
If you steal from a thief you'll have hundred years of pardon
*
Onde mija um Português mijam logo dois ou três
Two or three will piss where one Portuguese pisses
*
Se são novos não sabem, se são velhos esquecem
If they're young they don't know, if they're old they,ve forgotten 

I'll try to think of some more to add. Please let me know if you think of any more sayings we used in Mozambique, or if you think of a better way of having them translated to English.

My friend Leila reminded me of a few more, and they're priceless. You can consider this the animal farm section of this Post: 

Não tentes ensinar o Porco a cantar porque só estás a perder o teu tempo e a chatear o animal
Don't try to teach a Pig how to sing because you're just wasting your time and bothering the animal
*
O Cabrito come onde esta amarrado
The Goat will eat where it's tied
*
Não corra com o sal e a faca antes de agarrar o Pato
Don't run with the salt and the knife in your hands before catching the Duck
*
Coelho que foge hoje, amanhã vira caril
Rabbit that runs away today, turns into curry tomorrow

Almost a month ago I had the pleasure of taking a ferry ride from Dakar to a well known little Island called Gorée, just off the coast of Senegal. The Island is famous because it was one of the great ports for the Atlantic slave trade, and because it's home to a museum called the House of Slaves, an old French headquarters built hundreds of years ago, used to sell slaves from West Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean.
Right now Gorée has a bit more than 1000 inhabitants and many of them live off the usual tourism the Island attracts. Among bead makers, painters, textile sellers and various other craftsmen I came across an artist called Ndama. He lives and works inside a made-up tent situated on the highest spot on the Island, next to an enormous old cannon used centuries ago to fight off the constant attempts to take over the Island. Ndama collects all types of scrap and puts it together to make statues of different size and shape. Every statue he makes has a name and a story. The picture above is of one of his works, very simply crafted from wood and metal pieces taken from a dilapidated door.
On my way up the hill I told someone the reason I wasn't going to buy any of her bead necklaces was because I had no money, so when she spotted me on my way back down the hill, firmly gripping onto my new statue, she became very agitated and angry with me so I learned a new word: Sai sai. It basically means cheeky/crooked man in Wolof.

François Truffaut was and still is one of France's, and probably the world's, best loved film directors. He's one of the key entities responsible for the Nouvelle Vague phenomenon, which helped shape modern cinema as we know it. Not everyone starts their career with a film like Les Quatre Cents Coups. Antoine Doinel, the central character of the film, was so well written that audiences had the pleasure of seeing him grow up over two decades in different films also directed by Truffaut, and always played by the same actor (Jean-Pierre Léaud). I think this character was well written and recurrent because of the similarities Doinel shared with Truffaut himself. They shared a similar upbringing, a similar way of living and an avid love for women. To me Jules et Jim is one of the films that changed cinema forever. It's simplicity and straight to the point narrative opened up a world of possibilities within the art form and also unveiled what "new cinema audiences" were willing to sit through.

Recently I visited Montmartre Cemetery in Paris where he's buried. His remains inhabit a respectful looking marble grave and there were fresh flowers around it. He died prematurely at the age of 52 from a brain tumor, and still with many projects to be completed. One project he managed to finish, besides the numerous cinema masterpieces he left behind, was a book on Alfred Hitchcock. Truffaut was a Hitchcock groupie and during a period spanning many years he interviewed Hitchcock at different periods in both their careers. They talked for endless hours about Hitchcock's life, work and techniques. Eventually, thanks to Truffaut's persistence, a book based on these conversations was compiled and published (pictured below). It's a fantastic read for anyone who's interested in film, and it's something you can read in the same way it was made, season through season. But still the climax of Truffaut's Hitchcock groupiness was a film he made using the Hitchcockian mold called Fahrenheit 451.