I feel it's the best thing that could have happened for me, leaving the Braves so I could go to another team that would give me more of a chance to play like with the Marlins.
I'm certainly thankful for what the Cubs did for me. I respect their organization. It's the same way with the Atlanta Braves, an awfully fine organization. I respect everybody who's down there, and that's still where I live today. But the Cardinals represent the best years of my career.
No one ever taught me how to shave; no one ever sat down to watch a Braves game with me. I paid for Yale myself, I lived by myself, I taught myself how to play the guitar. I did this all on my own.
There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.
Bravo's 'Real Housewives' series isn't just entertainment for devoted fans like me - it's an entire all-absorbing universe of pride and passion.
I'm in love with 'Bravo.' Me and my girlfriends love 'Bravo-ing,' which doesn't necessarily mean watching 'Bravo.' It's when you're a bum and you're on your couch watching reality shows.
I love the 'Housewives.' I don't watch 'American Idol' or 'X Factor.' I guess I don't like network reality: I like my Bravo; I like documentary programming - I love 'Intervention' and some things on TLC more than others - but the 'Real Housewives' to me are really revolutionary, in terms of giving camera time to women of a certain age.
I started working at Bravo in 2005, when I was offered a job by Lauren Zalaznick, the network's chairman. She encouraged me to start a blog. I wrote behind-the-scenes gossip about 'Battle of the Network Reality Stars,' the first show I took on as head of current programming.
I see my friends and family who have a passion or a dream, but it's now a dream deferred because they were never naive enough or brazen enough to say, 'Let me do this.'
Brazil is a country I hold very dearly. I've got followers there who I've been interacting with for years, as well as fellow artists like Ivete Sangalo, and it also has huge figures like Pele. I'd love to go to that World Cup - I'm not sure in what capacity, but I'll definitely be there. I know that nobody wants to miss it, least of all me.
It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.
Scoring from a dead-ball brings me massive satisfaction. It sets me up as an example for other players to follow, copy, and perhaps even emulate over the course of time. For them, I'm a Juninho Pernambucano 2.0, a Brazilian with a Brescia accent.
I like having a good time. It's probably my mother's Brazilian genes in me - party, party.
My father always told me I like the ball more than I like playing soccer: since I was a young kid, I was always skilled with it, dribbling furniture around the house. That's how I see football - fun and dynamic - and this goes beyond me; it's a characteristic of Brazilian football.
For me Brazilian music is the perfect mix of melody and rhythm. It just bubbles rhythmically. If I had to pick just one music style to play if would be Brazilian.
I loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me. For the first time I think it's really me.
When I was a young teenager, it was all about The Clash for me and that sort of English punk stuff. Then the Clash led me to all these other kinds of music: classic rock, Stevie Wonder, world music, and Brazilian music. I got serious about jazz when I was probably about 14 or 15.
If I had chosen the populist course, it would have been a breach of the trust placed in me by the people.
I wouldn't know a space-time continuum or warp core breach if they got into bed with me.
I was arrested on suspicion of breach of Official Secrets Act in March 2003, but they didn't charge me until November. Now, the in-between months, I was bailed and re-bailed, and my life was on standstill. I was in limbo. It was a difficult time for me and my family, because we just did not know what the future held for us.
