A musician tuned in to the culture

Caetano Veloso has always worked from a vivid palette of influences -- French Dadaists, psychedelic rock, Brazilian modern poets, jazz. One of Brazil’s cultural treasures and culture-shapers, he has recorded and performed for more than 40 years, mixing politics, poetry and traditional Brazilian music with elements of tango, fado and rap. (On his most recent album, “Ce,” he claims influences as wide-ranging as 1930 Brazilian singers and the Arctic Monkeys.) One of the founders of the revolutionary Tropicalismo movement that electrified -- literally and metaphorically -- Brazilian music, Veloso has always stepped assuredly into the cultural vanguard. Veloso, who recently had a show here in L.A., shares with The Times’ Lynell George the spoils of his foraging and the surprises of serendipity.

TELEVISION PICKS: I watch the news and old movies. I used to like MTV when it only showed music videos.

IN HEAVY ROTATION ON THE iPod: I don’t have an iPod. I’m listening obsessively to one track in Kassin+2’s album “Futurismo.” The title of the song is “Agua.”

SOUNDTRACK FOR THE COMMUTE: I used to go back to Joao Gilberto, Thelonious [Monk], Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Ella [Fitzgerald] -- to rest from my own material. Now I’d rather read than listen to music. I heard a lot of stuff before “Ce” was done. Now I stick to “Agua.”

IN THE NETFLIX QUEUE: I do not have Netflix, but I recently saw “Ratatouille,” “In Praise of Love,” “Saneamento Basico,” “Tropa de Elite.” The first I took my 10-year-old son to see and I liked it more than he did. The second is a Godard movie, with an unusually beautiful black-and-white cinematography. The other two are Brazilian. “Saneamento” is better, but “Tropa” is probably coming to the USA. It’s about violence between police and traffickers in the favelas.

BEDSTAND LIBRARY: I have just finished “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” I bought it at the airport in Rio. I mostly read it in the European part of the tour. Now I am seeing the USA with Gertrude Stein’s “Lectures in America”; she makes one laugh very often. I am also reading Portuguese novelist Antonio Lobo Antunes’ “O Meu Nome e Legiao.”

TOP INTERNET DESTINATIONS: None.

YOUTUBE PICKS: Mostly things my friends send to me. Last week I was shocked to read in an American newspaper that although the rapper Nas’ next album’s title was going to be “Nigger,” the paper wouldn’t print the word. Then I searched on Google for Patti Smith’s “Rock N Roll Nigger” to see if it would be there. It was there. And that led me to a fantastic version of the song by Marilyn Manson on YouTube.

CULTURAL ADDICTION: I like to talk and read.

SECRET WEAPON FOR NAVIGATING THE CULTURE: I have many friends and colleagues, I have intelligent sons, I read newspapers and occasionally I find things in the Internet.