Brazil is busting out all over!

Suddenly Brazil is busting out all over - after so many months of non-Brazilness,

1. My article about forro in Rio came out in Harvard's Revista magazine this month (my first actual publication to come out of this blog);

2. Finally got to the Portland pagode jam for the first time, had a GREAT time. Fun little scene happening there.

3. Went to the first-ever American choro music camp last weekend in Port Townsend, Washington. Great, great camp, sold out, huge success, fantastic instructors. I lucked out in my ensemble placement - killer crew of melody players in my bunch. The most fun was seeing the bluegrass mandolin people, and the big band / jazz wind players, latch on to choro like it was the best music they'd found in years. Some of them had never heard it before and they just dove in like they'd found the motherlode. It is taking off in the US FAST now that Mike Marshall has spread the word to the bluegrass mandolin crowd. I made a lot of great contacts for future playing, hopefully, and I'm thrilled about pandeiro all of a sudden again - even managed to squeeze in a private lesson w/Brian Rice & got totally jazzed about it, or should that be, choro'd. It was especially nice to realize that my Rio pandeiro studying has really paid off.


Then the two wild cards that appeared this week out of the blue...
4. I bought an apartment in Salvador with a friend!!!! OK, so it's not Rio, but I love Salvador too. My friend found a wonderful 3-bedroom place just a couple blocks from the beach in Barra. Just a couple days ago!!! I'm so thrilled!!!! I spent almost all my savings on it. (Instead of investing in a home here in the US, you might notice) We're going to rent it out most of the year and stay in it a few months a year. Dancers & musicians and would-be Portuguese studiers, take note... it's a great place, and with the 3 bedrooms you can bring a whole crowd o' friends or your whole family.

5. Then I FINALLY GOT SMART and remembered last week, while teaching Conservation Biology at the University of Portland, that I used to work on the famous golden lion tamarin project at the National Zoo that is reintroducing tamarins to BRAZIL. To RIO DE JANEIRO STATE, I suddenly remembered. To a park that is FIFTY MILES FROM RIO, I suddenly remembered. One of the most endangered (and cutest) monkeys in the world. Yes, I finally remembered that there are more Rio Stories than just the musical ones, and one of the Rio Stories is a monkey story, and I could help out; it's my specialty, I'm good at it. Cut to the chase, I wrote to the National Zoo a few days ago to my old boss, & she wrote right back and it's looking good for me to get into the GLT project again. Could I possibly finally get my science life hooked up with my music life? Why didn't I think of this before??? I am going to get this hybrid life figured out somehow...

I have a plane ticket to Rio in January. Two weeks. I'm all lined up for a night at Mocidade, 3 days of surfing with Katrina at Rio Surf Tour, a week at the Rio Hostel in Santa Teresa, and wrap up with a wild four days with the Londoners in Ipanema. I can almost taste it.... I so want to be there again. Less than two months away now.