The scoop on Grupo A

GET THEE TO GRUPO A ON SATURDAY NIGHT! Be there! It's where all the cool sambistas will be. :)

Here's Frederico Soares' take on Grupo A, transcribed from the Roda de Samba blog:
(translated by me, all errors my own)
Original Portuguese version at: http://extra.globo.com/blogs/rodadesamba/

and notice, o ye international sambistas, how Frederico uses "samba" ALWAYS to mean the song; and "enredo" ALWAYS to mean the theme of the parade, not the song. The article won't make any sense if you've got it backwards.

***

Everybody, I've finished my annual trek through the warehouses of almost all the escolas of Grupo de Aceso A (I only missed Caprichosos de Pilares). And, from this, I've already got some perspectives about this Saturday's spectacle - one that will have few good sambas. I'll try in the next lines to make a predication based on what I saw, from what I know of the groups and the sambas that they'll be presenting. Here they are:

Estacio de Sa - Without a doubt, the favorite for the title. With an interesting theme about the ancient custom of people who can predict the future, the escola has become as grandiose as if it were in Grupo Especial. The floats are impressive. The samba is just average, but it should serve sufficiently for the parade. And the "floor" (chao, the dedication of the people) is of the highest level. Ingredients that without a doubt could take them to the championship.

Uniao da Ilha - The samba is classic, historical, and it's got the ability to make the whole Avenida cry. The work in the warehouse is of a higher level than I had expected, especially in view of Ilha having passed through a serious financial crisis. Sincerely, I think it difficult that they'll end up in first place. lBut the escola has everything in hand to make me "burn my tongue" (eat my words)
[note from KH: Ilha is using the classic song "E Hoje", a classic and one of the first five songs that every gringo sambista should learn by heart. Because it seems like every single bloco in the city plays it in every single parade!)

Academicos do Cubango - Outside of Ilha's samba, which is a reprise of a previous year's samba, the samba of Cubango is definitely the best of the group. The courageous enredo in homage of the dancer Mercedes Batista is another positive factor. The talent of the young, up-and-coming carnavalesco Wagner Goncalves also should be taken into account. The bateria too is going to "weigh" (pesar, be heavy, be formidable), now that it's led by Mestre Ricardinho, who was responsible in the previous two years for the best baterias in the group - Paraiso do Tuiuti and Arranco.

Lins Imperial - The samba isn't "one of those things there" (isn't all that great), but the charming method that the carnavalesco Eduardo Goncalves has found to develop the enredo, a homage to the 200th anniversary of hte arrival of the Royal Family, could make the difference. The fine set of costumes should also be taken into account.

Imperio da Tijuca - This is a typical case of an escola that knows its limits. Given its financial conditions, its work in the warehouse is very honest and creative. The samba is one of the best, very well suited for being sung by the crowd. In addition to this, they're "coming very well referenced" (coming off a high point) by their wonderful and surprising presentation in 2007.

Academicos de Santa Cruz - Here's another escola that's doing lovely work on its floats. I'm worried, however, by the samba-enredo, which isn't one of the best. The plan for developing the enredo, which tries to associate the arrival of the Royal Family with Porto de Itaguai, also is a little arguable.

Renascer de Jacarepagua - Yet another group that will show us Don Joao VI & Cia (the Royal Family). Although the enredo depicts an imaginary letter written by the King of Portugal, the theme's development is very much tied to historical records, which doesn't seem likely to result in anything very "carnavlesco" (festive). The samba is also middle-rate.

Academicos da Rocinha - In my opinion, they have a good samba. In addition they have the excellent work in the warehouse, led by the promising Fabio Ricardo, which makes us think that Rocinha is another very strong candidate for the title. The enredo, an homage to people of the northeast, has a direct connection to the Rocinha community, and is also easy to understand.

Imperio Serrano - I value this escola principally for their tradition. The samba, though I don't like it very much, is being sung well in the rehearsals. As for the costumes, they may well be the best of the entire parade. The floats, on paper, looking promising, but their decorations are still running behind schedule. They are also in the fight for the title.

Thursday: Kids' escola parading tonight!

A sweet note on the kids' parade (this Thursday night) in the Sambodromo, from Leonardo, author of the Roda de Samba blog.

"I can't believe it. The years go by, but the emotion always springs anew. I say this to express what I felt in the instant when I passed the corner of Avenida Presidente Vargas with Rua Marques de Sapucai. There were already some floats there from the little kids' groups that will parade today, starting at 5pm. The impression that I had was that, on seeing that Avenida illuminated with that little beginning of Carnaval, represented by those little floats, I felt like I had left the planet and enttered paradise. Moments like this are what still give pleasure to life. I felt there, in my skin, one of the things I most love."

The 18 children's groups are parading right now as I write this! 30 minutes per group.


(translation note: The Brazilians say "in my skin", na pele, to mean feeling something very deeply. We'd probably say "in my bones". I'm guessing it comes from black Brazilians' references to their skin color as a shorthand for their soul, spirit, or rootsy background, as in Jorge Aragao's famous song "Coisa de Pele" - A Thing of the Skin - which is a song about his rootsy past before he became famous.)

Holocaust float banned; Barros cries

Photo by José Carlos Pereira de Carvalho

Viradouro's Holocaust float has been banned by a Rio judge today. This occurred a day after LIESA's magazine Abre-Alas, which carries full descriptions of all floats for the coming weekend, said that Viradouro's float would also carry a person dressed as Hitler.

Here is second story of the day about this from O Dia. This story describes Viradouro's response: (translated by KH)

Thurs Jan 31 10pm

Viradouro announced at nightfall today that it will carry out the changes required by the judge, prohibiting the use of the Holocaust float. The float will be modified to have the theme of freedom of expression, according to RJTV. Workers in the barracao (float construction warehouse) have already begun work.

(Photo at top shows the float in its last intact moments. Photo below - being dismantled.)

(photo O Dia)

On this Thursday morning, following the plea of Sergio Niskier, president of the Israelite Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FIERJ in Portuguese), the judge prohibited Viradouro from parading with the Holocaust float, which was to show a pile of corpses, alluding to the millions of Jews killed by the Nazi regime.

The Independent League of Escolas de Samba (LIESA) stated that Viradouro needs to describe the alterations to the float at least 24 hours before the parade so as not to lose points.

Paulo Barros Cries

(photo O Dia)

The carnavalesco of Viradouro, Paulo Barros, cried on seeing the float being dismantled in the Cidade do Samba. Earlier, in an interview with the site Tudo de Samba, he commented on the judge's decision.

"The point of this float was to be a reminder so that a tragedy like this will never happen again. The float is being described as if it were an aggressive act on my part. In truth, what was stated in "Abre-Alas" was a misinterpretation of the float. Corintho, the man was who was going to ride on the float, dressed as Hitler, was going to act out Hitler's blame for the massacre. I regret that people prefer to close their eyes to a historical fact of the gravity of the Holocaust, and that instead they prefer to trivialize the memorial that I had prepared to show in the Viradouro parade."

Fines Would Be R$ 250,000

The preliminary verdict was granted by Juliana Kalichsztein, judge of the the Tribunal Board of the Justice of Rio. If the escola disobeys the order, they will have to pay a fine of R$ 200,000. And if they parade with any member dressed as Adolf Hitler, they'll have to pay another R$ 50,000.

"An event of this magnitude, despite being, at is essence, intended to bring happiness, [?descontracao - sorry, I don't know this word - KH], and informing the population about various important facts that have occurred over the years, should not be used to celebrate the cult of hatred, any form of racism, or a clear trivialization of barbaric and injust events that have been committed against minorities, especially the approximately six million jews (many still alive), and led by the execrable figure of Adolf Hitler," said the judge in a statement.

According to the judge, the urgency of the issue has been discussed on both sides, and therefore Viradouro will be allowed to simply change some passista costumes and make certain changes to the float. They will have to dismantle only the part that has the nude cadavers of the Nazi victims. The escola can still appeal the decision.

According to the press agent of TJ-RJ, the judge authorized the float to parade as long as it is without the nude corpses. In practice, this will invalidate this section of the parade. The verdict was delivered by the 33rd Civil Court. After the judge's decision, FIERJ released a statement commending the decision:

"Once again, FIERJ has acted in defense of the community, not permitting any trivialization of the Holocaust or any disrespect to the memory of all the victims of this barbarity, including the Brazilian heroes who died in the fields of Italy, and all the 54 million victims of the barbarity that was World War II," read the statement.

The decision came one day after the newspaper O Dia revealed that a dancer depicting Hitler would be on the float. Barros had denied that there would be any people on the float when the existence of the float became widely known to the Jewish community, as O Dia noted on Jan. 18th. The magazine Abre Alas, with its detailed description of the parade, therefore, contradicted the carnavalesco's statement. The Israelite Federation of Rio appealed to the escola to not use the float.

The president of FIERJ, Sergio Niskier, criticized the float and said, after receiving the information from O Dia, that he had "changed his mind" about Viradouro: "When the presence of a person dressed as Hitler was confirmed, bringing [to Carnaval] an image of a bloodthirsty, murderous dictator, my opinion changed." [Niskier had previously stated that though he was upset about the float, he believed that Viradouro had honestly meant to memorialize the Holocaust, not celebrate it.]

(end O Dia story)
*****

(me again)
The designer of the float, Paulo Barros, is widely regarded as the boldest and most innovative float designer of the modern era of Carnaval. I think what we have here is a fundamental disagreement about whether Carnaval can be a true art form. Is Carnaval inherently frivolous? Or can it depict complex topics, even horrifying and abhorrent events, without trivializing those events? The escolas take great pride in the fact that they tackle some difficult and serious themes in their parades - something that most tourists don't understand. It leads to widespread tourist puzzlement every year as certain floats go by, whether because the float subject seems non-festive, or simply too intellectual or serious. Case in point: Imperio Serrano's float last year that attempted to depict Einstein's theory of relativity!

But.. it's a party, too. There did seem to be a lot more dancers in feathered bikinis involved in Einstein's theory of relativity than I remember from physics class.

One week to go....

It is just about killing me to not be in Brazil. This is THE week. The "street Carnaval" has already begun; the bloco parades are in full rampage; the big Sambodromo parades are a week away. I've got so many friends in Rio now, and bunches flying to Salvador, and just got a call from a New York friend who was just six hours away from hopping on a plane to Recife with the Maracatu New York gang. Oh, to be in Recife this week!!! Or Rio... Or Salvador... Anywhere but the Pacific Northwest.

But I can follow Rio from afar. More news from the O Dia & Roda de Samba websites:

- Mangueira's going to have gigantic elephants on its float. This is related to its "100 years of frevo" theme in some way that I can't quite figure out. (Are there elephants in Recife?) Also a gigantic rooster. This one I understand - it's a reference to the "Rooster of Dawn" parade that annually draws two MILLION revelers at dawn during the Recife Carnaval). (also the reference for one of my favorite Rio bloco names, "The Chicken of Noon") However - the mestre of the Mangueira bateria has decided NOT to do the frevo-style break that they've been practicing. He says it just isn't working and they keep losing their rhythm whenever they try it. So I guess expert escola players don't necessarily know how to play frevo! And vice versa, I suppose.

- Grupo A tickets are on sale! Oooo, what a BARGAIN - they're only FIFTEEN REAIS!!! I can't believe how many international sambistas don't know about Grupo A and don't go. It's like the great hidden secret. LIESA would rather have three hundred reais from you for a Grupo Especial ticket, rather than fifteen, so they don't exactly advertise it! (Just try to find out anything about Grupo A on the LIESA website.) But GO. It's on the Saturday of Carnival weekend. Just GO, on Saturday night, and buy a ticket from a scalper.

-Roda de Samba reports a concern that the Grupo Especial escolas drive their poor baianas too hard. Those are the elderly ladies in the hoop skirts, except they're less "hoop skirt" and more "gigantic architectural 500-lb heat-stroke machine" . The risk of serious heat stroke in the Especial costumes is really appalling - sheathed in layers of polyester from head to toe and expected to dance nonstop for two hours! This is actually the real reason that I have very little desire to parade with a Grupo Especial bateria. One look at those costumes and my heart sinks....Once you've done a full parade in an excruciating costume, as I did with Imperio Serrano, you don't ever look at the Carnaval parade in the same way. People pass out all the time and are just dragged to the side off the parade route. I remember Tanit telling me about a terrible Grande Rio year when people were dropping like flies in the bateria all around her. That was a costume with pants and a big hat. That's the rule, you look at the costume and you ask "Pants? Big hat?" If the answer is yes and yes, RUN AWAY. Carnavalescos are particular sadistic to the baterias and baianas - they always want to put the bateria in drum-major military type outfits with yup, full pants, long form-fitting sleeves, knee-high boots... basically clothes that were designed for a European winter. All of 100% heat-retaining polyester... gawd.... and the baianas in these thousand-pound spinning concoctions that are about seven feet wide.

Anyway, last year a baiana actually died. It's a miracle it doesn't happen more often. There are proposals for more medical tests beforehand... but you just know the baianas will do anything to be able to parade.

- Martinho da Vila, the revered samba composer, is criticizing the city of Rio for giving so much funding to Grupo Especial and almost completely ignoring Grupo A. He says: Grupo Especial doesn't need the money! Grupo A does! Case in point: Imperio Serrano (Grupo A) has run out of money for finishing its floats. I think he's spot-on.

- Many Grupo Especial escolas had to screech their float-making to a halt for a day or two last week during surprise inspections by labor regulators. Something to do with allowable # of hours worked by various classes laborers. Some escolas got fines; others sent everybody home just in case. Everybody's tearing their hair out since there's only a week left to get the floats done.

- LIESA had another special session for the four judges who will be judging the flag couple, the mestre-sala and porta-bandeira. (LIESA runs "judge classes" every year. There's always a few new judges every year who don't necessarily have any idea what criteria they're supposed to be using... and often some experienced ones who have drifted away from reality) A major complaint was the "excess of choreography and ballet techniques" that has crept into the flag dances in recent years. One judge said he fears that the truly unique aspects of this dance - and it IS a unique dance, something I've never seen anywhere else in the world - may be lost if this "excess of ballet" is allowed to continue. The president of LIESA made the point that a bit of ballet might be okay in certain cases where it matches the escola's theme.

- The carnavalesco of Grande Rio, Roberto Szaniecki, has gone on record saying he is "profoundly uncomfortable" about Viradouro's proposed Holocaust float. Szaniecki, who is from a Polish Jewish family, said: "It's a complete lack of sensitivity. This is going to be broadcast in Europe. They're going to see it." He added, "I lost my grandparents because of the Holocaust." Paulo Barros, the famous carnavalesco who created the float, was not available for comment.

Disturbing-Float-Of-The-Year Award goes to...

Every couple years there's a Carnaval float that really raises some eyebrows. First off, you've got to understand that Carnaval parade themes are not always about good or happy things. They're supposed to be about IMPORTANT things, things that really matter in our lives. And that means it's considered valid to have Carnaval floats about slavery, murder, war, AIDS... you get the idea.

When these floats are done well, they can move people to tears. I got all choked up two years ago by the grim statues of slaves-in-chains on the back of a float about the history of Brazil - suffering in a hell of fake flickering fire, and holding up the entire float. Unidos da Tijuca last year had a horrifying float that vividly re-enacted the napalm fire-bombing of a Vietnamese village, memorialized forever by the famous news photograph of the little naked girl fleeing her burning village. (Tijuca's theme that year was photography).

So you do get shocking floats sometimes. Well, this year it's Viradouro's turn. Viradouro's theme this year is, simply, "It's hair-raising" - "É de arrepiar". The parade will begin innocently enough, with an enormous mountain of ice that will quite literally make the hair stand up in goosebumps. (The abre-alas, first parade float, is going to have an entire ski slope with 26 tons of snow - and actual skiers! - and, yes, more penguins) But later the parade will have a section of things that are hair-raising in the sense of being emotionally horrifying. The carnavalesco, Paulo Barros, intends that section of the parade to be a protest against the greatest atrocities ever commited by mankind. And that means he's planning an enormous Holocaust float.

A moving mountain of emaciated skeletons.

It is planned to be the only float without any choreography or "theatricalization" - meaning, no samba dancers, no scantily clad girls. It would be followed by alas (parade sections) dressed in costumes that depict other historic atrocities.

Makes you want to jump right up and sing along, doesn't it?

The Israeli Federation of the state of Rio de Janeiro has just announced that this is an inappropriate topic for a Carnaval float. Sergio Niskier, president of the federation, met with the Viradouro planners and understands their good intentions of memorializing, not celebrating, the Holocaust, but he fears the public will misunderstand. No word yet on whether Viradouro will change its plans.

(PS - A photo of the half-finished float has been circulating on the net, but under the misapprehension that it is a depiction of the TAM airplane crash last year.)

Are you a sambista or a sambeira?

news from Rio, from afar.... (translated and summarized from O Dia's Carnaval news website)

- Unidos da Tijuca is going to have a 27-meter peacock, as well as a float covered in penguins. Their theme this year is "Collectibles" ( a very Unidos da Tijuca theme! They seem to pick the oddest themes sometimes). Just about every float and ala will have an assortment of some kind of collectible object. Postage stamps, books, dolls, paintings, etc. So anyway, yes, they're going to have a 27-meter peacock and a float covered in gigantic penguins. (Do people collect peacocks and penguins?) The float will have 50 enormous penguins, the largest 9.5 meters tall. U da Tijuca's carnavalesco also reports that they're working on more of those Tijuca-trademark choreography floats - floats covered with people, "living floats", dancers all are doing some kind of choreography.

- Rainha news: There's an article today in O Dia about the rainhas-da-bateria, the Queens of the bateria, those gorgeous girls who strut around in front of the baterias in the incredibly sexy outfits. There's some sniping about body type going on, of course! Salgueiro's rainha is proud, proud I tell you!, of her liposuction. Porto da Pedra's "queen of plastic surgeries" says defensively that it's best to look feminine, by whatever means, and disparages the queens who are "too muscular". Portela's & Mangueira's fit and toned rainhas say they're just jealous.

Mangueira's rainha also went on record with the surprising opinion that that it is NOT necessary to be able to samba to be a good rainha. She says it's more important to have charisma. Scant comfort for the two rainhas this year who notoriously cannot samba, Grazielli Massafera (Grande Rio) & Natalia Guimaraes (Vila Isabel), because they both clearly feel very worried about it and have had to put up with some jeering from the crowd. ("Samba! Samba! You can't samba!") They've been giving each other moral support. Grazielli (Grande Rio) says she felt "hopeless" (desesperada) last year in her debut, but was very heartened by the warm reaction from the Grande Rio crowd. Natalia (Vila Isabel), debuting this year, says "I'm anxious and am taking lessons to learn the samba. But I will make up for my inexperience with "claws." ["garra"; heart, courage, guts]. (She is the one who I heard being jeered at the Vila Isabel Sambodromo rehearsal two weeks ago.)

Milton Cunha, carnavalesco for Sao Clemente, has invented the word "sambeira" to distinguish the rainhas who truly know samba from those that don't. His definitions are:

Sambista:
Can dance the samba.
Will parade on a float, on foot, in a parade section, or in a director's t-shirt.
Knows all the words of the song.
Loves the public in the Avenida.
Doesn't treat the job of rainha as a business proposition.
Only misses a rehearsal at the escola quadra when it's completely unavoidable.
Is a born-and-bred "foliã" (partier, lover of samba and of Carnaval).

Sambeira:
Doesn't samba, and doesn't want to learn.
Parades tense and worried about being in photos.
Becomes rainha-da-batera just because she's famous.
Chews gum all during the parade to help pretend she's singing the song
Ignores the members of the bateria.
Is a social climber. (literally, "uma alpinista social" - a social mountain-climber)


I'm reminded of Mestre Jonas's [of Mocidade] reported comment of how "annoying" the queens of the bateria can be - "There I was trying to lead the bateria and she kept bumping into me! Stopping and posing for pictures when we were marching up behind her! And her feather poked into my eye."

Why Rio is dangerous

On Saturday I raced off to Banga and got to play in the first Carnaval parade of the season. Well, not a parade exactly, sort of a stationary parade, in Lapa. We did the same thing last year - it's turning into an annual event - 5 of the best blocos playing one after another, from afternoon till deep into the night, in Lapa, ranging from new-style blocos (Banga) to distinct musical styles (Rio Maracatu) to the classic old marchinha blocos. They called it the 3rd Marchinha Congress, and they even had cleaned up and decorated the alley around the Fundicao. Everything was spotless! They were calling the street the "Marchodromo".

There were even 20 portapotties (!) and a lovely new bar set up just for the event, with tables to sit down at, even.

It occurred to me that this lovely little Marchodromo, and the assemblage of great blocos, and the huge crowd that turned up... this is how Carnaval first got started. A local parade in the street. Of all your favorite local groups.

And I played in Banga. It was all so colorful, this year. The sun was shining, the sky brilliant blue, all the colored streamers flying. The Fundicao was gleaming blue and green, the white Arches towering over head. All the street poles had been decorated with colored streamers. Every Banga player, 75 strong, was dressed in brilliant primary colors with huge silly hats on. It all looked so impossibly festive and bright-hearted, and everybody was so happy. The crowd was thousands strong. Olivia was beside me (also on third surdo, this year!) The music was perfect; strong and rowdy and beautiful. Perfect.

I was so lucky that Banga had a parade today; that they wanted me to play; that Banga was playing first, before my plane left Rio later tonight; that there was an extra third-surdo for me. My whole Rio trip opened and closed with Banga.

Afterwards I just had time to dash to a fabulously ritzy bar to have some fantastic sparkling wine and tiny, elegant shrimp skewers with Chris and Helene and some delightful friends of theirs. I was still wearing my tiara from the Banga show. I adjusted my tiara and posed for them, and there was a little pause and Chris said, "Every time you come to Brazil, you become more beautiful."

People tell you that Rio is dangerous. It IS dangerous. You can get hurt, get stuff stolen, end up bloodied and broken. It happens all the time. It happened on this trip, again. I came to Rio perfectly fine, and left with:

Both knees scraped raw and bloody from surfing
A huge torn-open bloody blister on the same finger from third-surdo at Banga
Another blister from playing repique at Sao Clemente
A bruise on my lower lip from where a choro musician bit me
Both feet terribly sore from dancing all night at Sao Clemente in my new strappy gold sandals
A set of rusty scars on my new skirt from the rusty drums at Sao Clemente
A really bad cold that I probably picked up from kissing one of those random Brazilians
A truly bizarre sunburn stripe across my back and on the sides of both arms, from surfing
A sunburned left foot from where it was sticking out from under the beach umbrella
A serious case of sleep deprivation from 14 nights in a row up till 4am
A really nasty credit card bill (but worth every penny)
My heart stolen, my heart broken, from having to leave.

Rio is definitely dangerous.

I played in Banga, I hugged Olivia and Dudu and Chris goodbye, I jumped on the plane. My fifth trip to Brazil. A dizzyingly short time later I landed in Portland, Oregon. I waited all day for the sun to rise today, but it never did; the sky is the dark grey of early dawn, and it stayed that way all day, but dawn never came. Now white snowflakes are whirling down. But the glow of Rio is with me still and I have a wide smile on my face. I am certain I will wake up out of this dream and open my eyes to see the Rio sky above my beach umbrella. This life in Portland is the dream life, and the Rio life is what is real.

Sou São Clemente

Friday night. Sao Clemente. I'd brought along Rob, Charlotte & and a new friend Phil, and was happy to be introducing them to "my" escola.

We walked in on a rowdy party. The Sao Clemente crowd really dances!! For some reason, in other escolas the passistas tend to put on a little show and then disappear, but in Sao Clemente, they stay the whole time and they're really having fun, playing "can-you-top-this" dance games with each other and inventing all kinds of moves on the spot. The whole dance floor is just full of passistas the entire time. They've got some incredible dancers there. There was a girl in a zebra top last week who really took my breath away.

The bateria was powerful. Strong and swinging. (Sao Clemente's still got the Grupo A problem of some raggedy tamborim players who don't quite know the breaks yet; but the core of the bateria, surdos & caixas, is Grupo Especial steady.)

My friend Charlotte (one of the Brits) started dancing by herself, off to the side, off the dance floor, by the bateria.

The passistas spotted her.

Now, you see, Charlotte can really dance.

ZOOM. A passista swooped over like a hawk to its prey. It was the girl I remembered from last week, the Zebra Girl. (Not in a zebra top tonight, but for me she'll always be Zebra Girl) She just about pounced on Charlotte, and swept her into a huge, bold, laughing, challenging, red-hot game of Can-You-Top-This? Samba-ing and shimmy-ing and matching each other move for move. Wide-eyed shouting smiles when the other girl does something really cool or beautiful. And Charlotte was right IN IT, right away. ON.

Zebra Girl grabbed Charlotte by the hand and physically dragged out into the dead center of the passista circle. (Charlotte said later that she almost panicked, but then her "Stern Voice" came on inside her & told her "Just do what you do! This is not the time for a wobbly moment!") DEAD CENTER of the passista circle at Sao Clemente, and, whether it was the Stern Voice or whatever, Charlotte flew into a samba solo like I've never seen, and the Can-You-Top-This game kept going and going, with passista after passista taking turns with her.

It was such a dance show I just stood on the side watching and grinning ear to ear. I sure can't dance like that myself but I love to see it, and I LOVE to see a gringa matching a Rio passista move for move! and then some! Show 'em what gringas can do, Charlotte, show them, show them all!! And she did. I almost photo'd it, almost video'd it, but then I decided it was one of those live-wire moments that I just wanted to experience in the moment, not behind a recorder.

It will be in my memory for ever, for sure, Charlotte and the Zebra Girl dancing in the passista circle at Sao Clemente.

Later - Playing. I'd been waiting till the mestre took a break, so I could ask him if we could play. I finally spotted my chance, and he was sweet as could be. We just had to wait till they were done playing their current samba, as I expected (since an unknown player won't usually be turned loose on the current samba - not until they know you, that is - but is often welcome to play in the later phase, when they start doing old sambas from past years. ) We waited till then, and the assistant director gave us the go-ahead and up into the bateria went all my friends. I stayed below and watched.

I know what it feels like. Into the bateria! It feels like jumping into the fire, into the volcano. There you've been watching the bateria from afar, practically drooling with lust and envy and admiration, all the seven deadly sins blazing in your head all at once, and suddenly you're clambering up the big steps and you're right IN them, up in their bleachers, IN THE BATERIA, caixa guys all around you, repiques, surdos - you're holding the rusty battered drum, the sweaty torn strap, the splintered old drumsticks - not the normal splintered drumsticks from home, but real RIO splintered drumsticks! - you're watching the mestre - a real Rio mestre! in a real Rio escola! - listening for the call - the repique player CALLS and you're OFF and you're PLAYING and you're PART OF IT, part of the bateria.

I'd stayed out because, well, I was worried there were too many of us! Sao Clemente didn't have all that many caixas out, and 5 gringos at once would have taken over half the caixa section and bumped some local Sao Clemente players off their drums. I'd forgotten to warn my friends about taking turns by 2's and rotating the drums around. So I stayed out for a while.

But it was hilarious watching from down below, because I could see all the caixa players clustered around my gringo friends, giving them huge pantomime gestures about how to stop and start a samba, never guessing these gringos were all expert samba players. (But it was sweet that their instinct was to try to help out.) I could see them trying to mime the absolute-dirt-basic "turn and stop" break that every samba player knows (what Lions call "the cut"). The pantomine went: 'So there'll be a TURN, and then you STOP, ok? TURN, and STOP. It'll be TURN, and STOP. And then you've stopped and you are NOT PLAYING. OK? You'll go TURN, and STOP!" and Rob and Charlotte and Phil all nodding "Yes yes yes yes yes yes"

Long story short, the bateria hit the cut and Phil and Charlotte and Rob all did a beautiful TURN, and STOP, and you could see progressive waves of relief and, then, astonishment, and then, fascination, sweeping over the other caixa players' faces: "Oh my god... the gringos can play!" (Especially, of course, fascinated with Charlotte, She Who Can Dance Like a Passista but Plays Caixa Em Cima Like a Ritmista. They kept sneaking little amazed side glances at her like she was Sheena, Queen-of-the-Samba) Rob and Phil switched to repique later, hit some beautiful zinging rolls together that matched the tamborim subidas, and I saw some wide-eyed glances going back and forth then too, between the repique leaders. Because oh my god, the gringos can play.

Eventually I spotted an extra caixa, so I climbed on up too. So I had my own heavenly moment of climbing up into the bateria, and finding that rusty caixa (the worst caixa), and that splintered stick (my worst stick ever! it was 2 inches long!!!), and torn strap, and joining in. Oh, it was such heaven to play and play and play again, in that thunderous roaring bateria sound. Eyes on the diretor. Glancing over to the dance floor now and then, spotted the whole dancing crowd, the crazy Sao Clemente passistas, the Zebra Girl, and a wild group of Beija-Flor girls that had turned up out of nowhere, all dancing like it was the last night of their lives; and WE were MAKING THEM DANCE; they were dancing because of OUR PLAYING. It's an incredible feeling.

I played and played and played, took a break, switched to repique, played and played and played some more. Repique felt fantastic - it's the first time I tried it in Sao Clemente, and it felt so comfortable - got some thumbs-up for that, even though all I was doing was the basic ride.

Rob and I stayed playing till the very end. Such a high. And such a welcoming crowd. Like Olivia told me once "They're good people in Sao Clemente. Not stuck up." And they can PLAY.

The mestre invited us to the technical rehearsal on Tuesday. "Vem terca, vem terca!" Oh, if only I could stay in Rio!!! But at least I've been able to pass the flag on to my friends.

Squeaky cheese!

Friday - ran around on errands all day. I'd forgotten to pick up repique sticks, I remembered I wanted to get straps at Maracatu Brasil, I had to move my bodyboard clear to Leblon and pick up Rodrigo's cd.... etc. etc.... It's my last full day in Rio. I can't bear to think of it.

Finally hooked up with Rob and Charlotte on the beach, where they were in the hazy-headed endstage of a 5-hour afternoon in the sun on Ipanema beach. Avron and some other friends happened to walk up. Beach vendors were collecting their umbrellas, people packing up their things and heading home. The sun sank gently to the horizon... everybody on the beach applauded the sunset, as they always do on Ipanema beach, as if thanking the sun for the wonderful day. So sweet.

Rob flagged down a cheese vendor - one of those guys who spends all day, every day, walking through the beach carrying a cooler full of little sticks of white cheese, and a tiny home-made charcoal oven made out of a couple of coffee cans. The other 4 of us were all suddenly struck by what a brilliant idea this was, and the cheese man was the happy recipient of 5 cheese orders at once. Under the sunset, he set up his little coffee can, crouched down on the sand and lit the tiny fire inside, carefully selected 5 cheese skewers out of his little styrofoam cooler, covered each carefully in flakes of oregano, grilled them each individually, carefully handed them to each person.

Charlotte bit into hers and said "Squeaky squeaky squeaky!"

I bit into mine and I replied "Squeaky squeaky squeaky!"

It went EEE! in my teeth.
It was INCREDIBLY good.
There is nothing quite like the squeaky cheese! Especially at sunset on Ipanema beach.

News alert: Imperio at Sambodromo Mon night

Just a quick news flash for those of you in Rio: Imperio Serrano has done the impossible and has negotiated with LIESA to be able to have a full Sambodromo rehearsal, on a MONDAY night. This coming Monday, Jan 14th.

Imperio Serrano is "temporarily" in Grupo A instead of Grupo Especial, and Grupo A escolas normally never get to use the Sambodromo. But Imperio has such clout as a historic Grupo Especial escola, that apparently they've convinced LIESA to make an exception. So this Monday head on over there and check out Imperio's wonderful bateria! And look for the phenomenal third surdo guy while you're there.

I can foresee the other Grupo A escolas squabbling for their own Sambodromo rehearsals now. Wonder if LIESA might consider having 1 weekday evening per week for Grupo A. That'd be cool....

Under the Arches with Bloco X

Have spent the last couple days hanging out with my British friends Rob & Charlotte, who play with Verde Vai in London. Rob rented a plush apartment in Ipanama with a STUNNING view of all of Ipanema beach, AND of all of the Lagoa, AND of all the lush wooded hills in the background... wow, I am sold, I'm not messing around with Copa apartments again. This is by far the most comfortable place I've ever stayed here, and the view is REALLY something to soothe your soul. We see every single sunset - the sun sinking into the sea by the Two Brothers, the water gleaming like gold.

Unfortunately I only overlapped by a couple days with Rob & Charlotte but we had time for some good stuff. Thurs I caught a little of Banga rehearsal. Remember the super-packed rehearsal I described from Monday when they had 60 people in that tiny room? Which I swore was absolute maximum? I arrived late to Thursday rehearsal, inched the door open and stuck my head in, and, oh man, impossible, they somehow had squished 72 people in there! (I counted!) I couldn't even open the door more than 6 inches before it hit a surdo player. I saw it was impossible and tried to extricate my head to leave (my head was now stuck in the door), but Dudu, the leader, spotted me. "Kathleen, pode entrar!" he said - come on in. I mimed back with that Brazilian fingers-together gesture for "cheio", too crowded. He said, no no no, come in, and then said into the microphone "What do you think everyone, can we make room for Kathleen?" And all 72 people yelled and cheered and did a gigantic drumroll for me and somehow squished 8 inches over so that I could squeeze into the room. I was so touched.

So I squeezed into Banga for a while. Then, when that rehearsal finished, grabbed a cab to Imperio Serrano's Thursday night tech rehearsal - YOW they really DO have the strongest third-surdo player in the entire universe!! Go and see the tech rehearsal and you'll immediately see what I mean; listen for the thunderous nonstop third-surdo rolls and look for the burly bodybuilder who is creating it all, and you'll think "Oh, that's got to be the guy Kathleen was talking about."

Imperio has a hot, hot bateria! Blows the socks of most of Grupo Especial - jeez, some of the Grupo A baterias are absolutely first rate. (The only reason Imperio is in Grupo A is because they don't have the money for elaborate floats & costumes.) But we only got there in time to catch the very end of their tech rehearsal (note to self: some escolas actually start their tech rehearsals on time). We zoomed from there to the Unidos da Tijuca street rehearsal, which kept going for probably a whole other two hours (note to self: some escolas do NOT start their tech rehearsals on time).

"There's the Poles!" shouted Rob happily. "The Bloco X Poles," he explained somewhat mysteriously. Bloco X is the brilliant European bloco, the best of the best, that meets in Germany once every spring for a very famous "rehearsal" ("Rehearsal for what?" "Well, it's not really a rehearsal for anything " ) Bloco X attracts the best players from all over Europe, including, apparently, a contingent of excellent Polish players - and there they all were at Unidos da Tijuca.

So after Unidos da Tijuca's rowdy end at midnight, we ended up in a large chatty bunch of Bloco X Poles and Bloco X Germans, attempting to herd everybody to Lapa to hear some pagode. We lost everybody and ended up having a drink at that tiny bar on the corner by the arches (You know the one. The place you always walk past that's right where the streets split.)

"There're the Poles again!" Rob said again. "Look, under the Arches!" We'd found them!

Well, it turned into one of those ineffably satisfying Lapa nights, in which you're all milling around at the Arches trying to decide where to go, and you run into all kinds of people that you know, suddenly EVERYBODY is there, everybody from all all your Brazil journeys re-assembled, and a whole dozen or so new wonderful people (Bloco X!!! Another whole world of people I'd never met!!) and there you under the Arcos da Lapa under the huge white arches. In Rio on this wonderful summer night. And you can never seem to get the crowd moving anywhere because somebody's always in the middle of buying a drink or some grilled chicken or some squeaky grilled cheese from a street vendor, so you have to wait for them to finish their transaction. Then you think well, hell, and you buy yourself some squeaky grilled cheese and a caipirinha from a street vendor. Everybody, one at a time, is doing the same thing.

So you never quite get around to going anywhere. Just stand there on the red steps and talk and talk and talk.

The caipirinhas from the street vendors are MASSIVE. Plus (on this particular Lapa night) the Bloco X Poles are passing around some positivley brilliant Polish honey brandy. Actually I'm not really that much of a drinker - I used to never drink at all, believe it or not, and am still a fairly light drinker at home. But in samba it's just part of the social scene. So in Brazil I have to be careful, because those street caipirinhas, oh man, just one can really knock me flat on my back. Somebody insisted on buying me a second. I was doing okay, really I was, but definitely had to think a bit about where I was putting my feet when I walked, and Rob said "I think I know you well enough now, Kathleen, to be able to tell when you're drunk. And you're drunk now. Am I right?" Yeah, he was right.

Well, under the influence of the two gigantic caipirinhas, some number of shared Skols and the positively brilliant Polish honey brandy, I immediately forgot all the Bloco X guys' names. But they seemed like such fun people that now I'm determined to get to Bloco X someday. This spring if I can POSSIBLY squish it around my teaching schedule in Oregon. I sure heard wonderful things about it: Top-notch playing. Giant refrigerated beer truck. Excellent samba. And maybe the Bloco X Poles will bring more of the honey brandy??

All in all, a fine and classic night in Rio with Bloco X.

Viradouro president shot; Mangueira secret tunnel

Viradouro´s president was shot yesterday afternoon under "mysterious circumstances" as he left the escola quadra. He´ll be ok - shot twice, rushed to surgery and is doing pretty well.

He´s a policeman who is "suspected" (=known) to have strong ties to the bicheiros of Viradouro, the kings of the illegal street lottery "jogo de bicho". Most escolas used to get a lot of their funding from the bicheiros. But the bicheiros´ influence has been weakened dramatically in recent years due to crackdowns against the jogo-de-bicho. In their place, the drug dealers are taking over the escolas. (See Mangueira update below). BUT - new development - in several escolas there are now policemen in upper administrative posts who appear to have struck a deal with the bicheiros not to prosecute them and to leave them at liberty. That´s apparently what´s going on in Viradouro.

Meanwhile - Mangueira still in the news. The police dismantled an enormous wall yesterday that the Mangueira traficantes had built around their drug-processing factory. Tons of cocaine too, not just pot, which makes more sense to me (I was a little surprised there was such excitement over pot, even a lot of pot).

Two new twists in the news today: Twist #1 is that Mangueira´s also been feeding drugs to two other escolas nearby (a Grupo A escola, Lins Imperial, and a Grupo B escola, Paraiso de Tuiuti, where I once attended a tamborim workshop). The Mangueira druglords have been using both those quadras for drug deals. Plus, Mangueira´s traficante guy also co-wrote the samba-enredos of both those escolas! (Suddenly it seems almost charming that such a big-league drug dealer guy should want to be a samba composer and get his songs into Carnaval.)

Twist #2 was that there is a secret passage from the bateria balcony of the Mangueira quadra to a little house in the favela behind the quadra. Shades of Hardy Boys. This so that known drug-dealers who want to avoid the public eye can get into the bateria without having to go through the front doors. Apparently the Mangueira bateria is where they have been meeting to plan the major drug deals. jeez.... no wonder they don´t like it when gringos ask if they can go up into the bateria to watch. They never would let me up there last year.

Reports are that last year, the then-president of the bateria, Ivo Meirelles, made a special trip to the head traficante Polegar, who was then in prison. Why? To ask Polegar to spare Meirelles´ life. Meirelles had been "sentenced to death" by the traficantes for revealing the existence of the secret bateria tunnel to the press.

Why bother to go someone who is in prison for help? Because, like many Rio drug dealers, Polegar has a full office set up in prison, with cell phones, and he runs his entire drug operation from there. Frequently they´re let out of prison to attend weddings and such. (Mangueira´s president last year got into a lot of trouble for sending the Mangueira bateria to play at the wedding of a traficante who somehow got out of jail in order to go to his own wedding. It was such a scandal that the Mangueira president resigned. This was last year. The more things change....)

Mangueira de Maconha

Big news storm going on about Mangueira, which is the most famous, oldest, and one of the most dangerous escolas in Rio. Its massive influence seems almost malevolent to me sometimes; Mangueira has always seemed more than a little creepy.

Mangueira´s always been proud about never having any connections to the jogo-de-bicho (illegal lottery) but everyone knows they´ve got connections to the traficantes (drug dealers). So anyway, the police have just raided a massive maconha (marijuana) processing plant in the favela of Mangueira. It belongs to the well-known traficante (drug dealer) Tuchinha, who has long-term connections to the escola, and there also seem to be a lot of connections to the president of the escola and to Ivo Meirelles, who until recently was president of the bateria. Tuchinha has suddenly vanished. The police are calling it `Operation Carnaval´.

What seems to be going on is that Mangueira´s Saturday rehearsals have been used as a major drug-selling locale for Tuchinha to off-load his product to the approximately ten zillion tourists and locals who all go there every Saturday. The estimate is that Tuchinha makes one MILLION reais per WEEK off his pot operation, of which SIXTY PER CENT is sold at the Mangueira rehearsal. Let´s see... that´s about US$350,000 cleared at every single rehearsal. Wow. I´ve always said Mangueira´s rehearsals are way too crowded! Now I finally know why!

Tuchinha also happens to be one of the composer´s of this year´s samba-enredo song for Mangueira. The newspaper reported snippily today `It´s not even a very good song.´

The newspapers also said that for some reason, almost everybody they contacted who has any knowledge of Carnaval or Mangueira had absolutely no comment about this news story. Nobody knows anything. Gee. Go figure.

Just maybe people are remembering 2004, when the director of the Mangueira bateria was assassinated because he´d publically disagreed with a local drug dealer about which girl should be queen of the bateria.

In the end, nothing will happen. Just like with Beija-Flor being accused of buying Carnaval last year. Nothing ever happens.

Another headline that I read hurriedly in the newstand yesterday referred to the police finding a `forno micro-ondas para queimar as pessoas´ in Tuchinha´s pot factory, which no matter how many times I look at it still translates to `a microwave oven for burning people.´ Have not quite figured this out & not sure that I want to know!

Meanwhile I´ve been chatting with friends who were thrilled about getting to play with Mangueira last week. There´s a type of sambista whose sole goal seems to be to parade in a bateria of Grupo Especial, and there´s a sort of one-up-man-ship about which bateria you´ve played with. That was my goal too when I first arrived, but the more I´ve lived here, the less it matters to actually parade. On this current trip, I haven´t wanted, or asked, to play in ANY of the escolas I´ve visited. I say "I went to Unidos da Tijuca last night!" and other sambistas say "Did you get to play?" and I say "Huh? What? Oh, no, I was chatting to Olivia and Pat and then I ran into Dudu, and then I was dancing with the passistas and then I had a beer and then I ran into these Germans who were really fun, and one of them bought me this ENORMOUS caipirinha, it was so funny..." You get the picture. I´ve got other things going on. I get plenty of playing time (with my bloco Banga) and there´s nothing I need to prove any more. Now I want to spend time with my friends.

I don´t think it´s a coincidence that the people who come here most often, like Jacare and me, eventually end up spending most of our time with the blocos in our home neighborhoods, and less time with Grupo Especial. Once you know what´s really going on, Grupo Especial is just plain creepy. I´ll still probably parade with a Grupo Especial escola someday, next time I get a good long stint here. But I don´t idolize them.

Brazilian Flirting 101

The flirting scene here takes some getting used to, but once you catch on it's a hell of game. At first you notice that you're seeing couples kissing in public more often than you're used to. REALLY kissing. Couples locked in deep, open-mouth kisses that last for minutes, just right out in the open, on buses, on street corners, in bars.

THEN you notice that after the kiss finally ends (ten minutes later) they walk in opposite directions and each of them starts kissing somebody else!

So, the flirting here seems to pretty much START with deep kissing. Before you even know the other person's name. The kissing doesn't mean anything; it's almost an introduction, a game, a sport. Not all Brazilians play this game, but, in Lapa at least, most are ready and waiting. Once you catch on to the possibility, if you're a girl - of ANY age, I might add - you can walk up to any group of Brazilian guys in a music club (as long as they don't have girls on their arms), just stride right on up and you can practically grab one at random, even if they're right in the middle of sentence to somebody with their back to you, just grab them and turn them around and start kissing, without even saying hello. It's completely normal.

They're astonishingly fast on the uptake - they'll stop whatever they were saying to their friends, stop mid-sentence, and switch to kiss mode instantly.

If you're feeling a bit more formal, you can preface it with a polite "Boa noite, voce quer um beijo?" (Would you like a kiss?) That's all it takes.

And - this is the best part! - you can just walk away right afterwards. "Thanks! Have a good evening! Bye!"

And yeah, you can sure take it further if you wish! Especially around Carnaval; anything goes. I've just left it at the kissing myself - but I get an average of about one obvious opportunity (for more) every other night. And I'm 42. A friend of mine who is about a decade older is getting even more offers!

(Later when you get back to the States, the men seem bizarrely reserved, almost autistic. You start feeling insulted - "Why isn't anybody kissing me? Did I do something wrong?")

I was trying to explain all this to a young American boy who had just arrived for Rio for the Very First Time yesterday night. He got a demo soon enough. A bunch of people from our hostel, including him, were out to see some choro at Trapiche Gamboa. Tuesday is always the choro night at Trapiche Gamboa - always a fantastic bunch of musicians, with one of my favorite pandeiro players, a great mandolin and seven-string guitar, and a truly phenomenal sax player (one of the very best sax players in Brazil, reportedly ). Plus the club is lovely - a charming, three-story high, airy, brick-walled space filled with soft lights and tiny balconies. It's a soothing, calm, beautiful place, a great interlude between escola nights. And, it turns out, great cachaca. (A few of us have gotten on a kick of shots of straight cachaca. We ask for the best cachaca in the house and just have it straight up. It's cheaper and better than a caipirinha.)

After the last set, while the musicians were packing up, one of the musicians started SERIOUSLY giving the eye to one of my female friends from the hostel, who I will call Hostel Girl 1. I decided to help things along by inviting him over and sitting him next to her, and asking dozens of Perfectly Innocent Questions About Choro (I was the most Portuguese-enabled of the bunch, so it was up to me to keep the conversation flowing), and Oh By The Way, Have I Introduced You To My Girlfriend? One thing led to another and soon enough we had all piled in a cab together to Lapa. So sure enough, Choro Musician 1 & Hostel Girl 1 started making out madly in the back seat. There were FOUR of us in that back seat, mind you, me on one side and the fresh-off-the-plane American Boy on the other - the two of us shooting snickering glances at each other over the kissing couple.

We all ended up at a hopping little bar in Lapa. (You know the one. The one that's ALWAYS packed and chattering.) Two choro musicians and a bunch of hostel folks laughing ourselves silly after-hours over an enormous and growing stack of beer bottles. Me translating like crazy back and forth. It was a great translation experience - we got deep into a conversation about the worst swear words in both languages, and everyone was drunk and laughing (including me) the whole time, and yet I felt practically fluent, though that's probably the cachaca talking. Then, drinking terms. I was trying to explain the concept of "saidera" to the American - "It's the Brazilian word for the last drink of the evening, except, they always seem to have a first last-drink and then a second last-drink and then a third last-drink" ... I translated this for Choro Musician 2 and he agreed amicably "Saidera is like a friendly little lie that we tell ourselves." We were on maybe our third saidera and laughing about Choro Musician 1 creeping steadily closer to my Hostel Girl 1 again, when I realized there was an arm around my back: Choro Musician 2 moving in!

Choro Musician 1 said, about Choro Musician 2, "He's a great dancer," and Choro Musician 2 said "No, no, no, not really, I can't really dance that well. But I'm a great kisser!"

Well, there's really only one response to that, really, right? "Me mostra" - Show me!

Shopping for Eight

I have to stop telling people that I am going to Rio. You've heard of eating for two, right? Try shopping for eight. It always sounds easy at first - friend 1 says, oh, could you pick me up a pandeiro? Friend 2 says, maybe a tamborim baqueta? Sounds easy enough. But next thing you know it's:

Dozen emails back and forth to Friend 1 - what kind of choro pandeiro? Flat rim or round rim? I recommend Pizzott. I like the flat rim. No, not the Agenor, my Agenor warped instantly and the platinela nails actually fell out. Yeah, flat rim's lighter but cuts into your thumb a bit, but once you get a callus that doesn't matter at ALL, and really the lightness helps so much with stamina. Round rim is in stock. Flat rim is out. Oh! Flat rim shipment is coming in today!! Yes, I can go pick them up on Wednesday (sigh, another errand, another beach afternoon missed). But there's no extra platinelas. Hey, he's got those pandeiro books! They're great! Do you want them? Volume 1? Volume 2? How about some comic books to work on Portuguese? What kind of comic books? How much are they? R2.80 each. Yeah, that's about US$1.60 or so per comic book. OK, I'll get you US$20 worth of comic books, let's see, how about "Monica"? Sure, "Pato Donald" (Donald Duck) is good for variety, but really I recommend "Monica" because it's native written, by a Brazilian, not translated, and plus it's just funnier. Except you have to remember that the little Cebolinha kid can't pronounce his R's. OK, got it, 1 flat-rim Pizzott pandeiro, one each of the pandeiro books, a bunch of Monica comic books, and I'll look for some Pato Donald or Homen-Aranha (Spiderman).

Phone calls back and forth to friend 2: I'm at Casa Oliveira music shop and yes, they have tamborim baquetas with seven strands, but from a different maker than the Mocidade ones. Yes, they look pretty good, smooth tips. OK, wait, I have to ask how much - wait -
- JORGE, QUANTO A BAQUETA? - He says they're 21 - wait, did I hear that right - JORGE, VINTE-UM? - yeah, they're 21 reais.
[I add, not into the phone, "JORGE! yes, two of the cuicas - one is for me and one is for another friend - no, he's a guy - what do you mean, guys should play 10" cuicas? It's more manly to play a 10" cuica than an 8"? Ok, whatever, give him the 10", I'll take the 8" - but, he wants spare sticks too, and, I have this other friend who wants mallets for third-surdo - no, I don't know what color - red or blue? um, um, ok, how about four blue and 2 red. No no no, two green. Oh, the green are larger? Um, um, four blue, two red, two green. No, that tamborim is for my OTHER friend who wants a tamborim - OH, and he wants two replacement heads. No, the OTHER other friend." ]
[Jorge is shouting all this up to a guy on the balcony and the guy up above is literally throwing baquetas and straps and tamborins through the air down at Jorge. Instruments are raining down over my head, Jorge catching every one, while I am on the phone to friend #2.]
- What - oh - where was I - yes, they've got quad bells, oh right, that's why I was calling, to tell you they do have quad bells. No, they're not really all that good. Well, the biggest bell is a bit tinny, it sort of goes, "WHANG-EE" instead of "BONG". But at least it's a quad bell. No, sorry, I forgot to ask how much they cost....
[Jorge's interrupting to say "Sorry senhora, but we're out of the 8" case, but the 8" cuica will fit in a 10" case if you don't mind a little extra space, what do you think? We've got extra sticks but we're out of heads. Yes, we have frigideiras"]
- what? what? ok, never mind about the quad bell, I'll get you the baqueta. Right. Cool. Call you later!!!

[meanwhile I've just spotted the CUTEST little tiny toy cuica, but, c'mon I've just spent practically US$350 on big cuicas and cases, enough already!!!]

OK, all set with friend 2. Now, friend 3 asked for a tamborim. Casa Oliveira has FIFTEEN BRANDS of tamborins, all hung in a row in the wall. I look at them all and experience a moment of hopelessness. Then suddenly I'm certain which one is best for him. I'm CERTAIN. The twelfth one over. It just looks right. Artcelsior, a good brand, six lugs that fit well in the hand. I hate those 8-lug ones.

Jorge says, alarmingly: We also have that one with eight lugs. I say, "Nao, nao, seis, seis, seis, prefiro seis! Obrigada!"

And so on. I went to Casa Oliviera to buy ONE CUICA. I leave with:

One seven-strand tamborim baqueta (for friend 2)
One manly 10" cuica in a 10" case (for friend 3)
One less manly 8" cuica (for me) in a 10" case
One frigideira, for me
Tamborim and two extra heads, for friend 4
Another tamborim, so I can have one in Portland and one in Seattle
4 blue third-surdo mallets, for friend 5
2 red third-surdo mallets, replacing mine that got lost at the Lions
2 green big heavy first-surdo mallets, replacing mine that got lost in Seattle
2 black waist straps, replacing mine that got lost at the Lions (what is going ON with all these mallets going "lost"?)
1 white shoulder strap, to go with the Lions' color scheme
5 replacement cuica sticks, for friend 3
One hard-shell pandeiro case (I'm tired of having to always put my pandeiro in my carry-on)

Friend 6 really wants a BIG surdo, and friend 7 a "short timbal, but I forgot to measure the one that I like, so I'm not sure how short". I look at the timbals but don't like any of the short ones. The surdos look GREAT but there's just no way I can handle a big surdo today. Maybe a 16" third surdo but not a really big primeira. I wonder if I could at least put some extra surdo heads in with my bodyboard... no no no, what am I thinking, I don't even have a case for the bodyboard. Sorry guys!

Stagger outside with the shop assistant, who has stopped throwing instruments from the top balcony and has shovelled them all into 3 huge plastic bags for me. We hail a cab and I pile in with all my stuff and tell the driver to go to Flamengo.

As soon as we leave I remember friend 5 also asked for single-strand baquetas and I totally forgot.

Friend 8 has emailed: Can I find the dvd of the Showtime soap opera that was about Mangueira? I go ask my hostel guy about it. Have you heard of a soap opera about Mangueira? He's not sure but he says, in Portuguese "But there were two novelas about Grande Rio and Portela. The Portela one is called Portelinha, little Portela. But I don't think you can get them on dvd." I remember I saw this Portelinha thing mentioned in the newspaper, and pull it out to find, yes, a whole article about Portelinha. Then I discover the #1 telenovela (soap opera) last year was "Heroes!" It beat out "Paraiso Tropical" 24% to 22% in the annual best-novela-of-the-year poll. Apprently everybody in Brazil knows the phrase "Salve a cheerleader, salve o mundo!" honest to god.

Fascinating as this is, it does not get me any farther toward that Mangueira dvd. I rummage through one dvd store and can't find anything. But on the street outside I find a pirated dvd of "Tropa De Elite"! the scary, brutal, wonderful movie that everybody's been talking about - caused the biggest stir since City of God (and my friend Olivia was assistant director!)

Score!!! I buy the pirate dvd of Tropa de Elite for 10 reais, cheapest catch of the day.

On it goes. Salve a cheerleader, salve o mundo.

A classic Rio Monday

Tonight was almost spectacularly eerie in its sense of deja vu. I stepped right into my old Rio life as if I had never been gone.... I'm back in my old room in Flamengo. Exact same room. I'm sorting through my weekend recordings from the Sambodromo, just like I used to do every Monday. And I've just found out Banga has a mandatory rehearsal tonight, for the first parade of the season on Saturday. So, exact same schedule, my classic Monday evening in Rio, trotting off to Banga rehearsal in Botafogo. Late as always, no time for dinner as always, I grab a cab as always, off to Rua das Palmeiras 26 just like always. To the beautiful little purple studio and all the chattering Banga players.

Some people I don't know at all (there's a crew of new players), some barely recognize me (there's a lot of people I have never quite gotten to know), and others give me a huge warm welcome - especially my fave third surdo player, Rato, who tells me he's been practically "dying of missing me" since I left, and all the leader guys, Dudu, Andre, Thiago, Rodrigo. We squish ourselves into the room- jeez, somehow they have packed 50 people, WITH DRUMS, into this teeny little 20x30' studio - I grab one of those familiar red straps, familiar little 16" surdos, and we're off and playing. I'd wondered if I'd remember anything, and Rodrigo, who is leading the surdos, periodically shouts over to me "'Ce lembra ou nao?" - do you remember or not? - before various tricky rhythms. But it all comes flooding back. I remember EVERYTHING. Every break. Jeez, I remember the Banga repertoire better than I do the Lions repertoire (the band I've actually been playing with recently), how freaky.

Latecomers come squishing in, with enormous surdos no less, and now there are 60 people impossibly wedged in here. I didn't think it was possible to play while standing squished so tight. Every person subtly, quietly shifts until each and every person finds a magic spot where they can see the leader, can get eye contact with other players on their part, can play, and not get killed, and not kill anybody.

For example - there's a couple new arrangements that only one third-surdo player knows. I can just barely spot the girl who knows the part - actually I can only see her left wrist, by looking through the crook of the arm of a caixa player in between us - but I can see enough to tell what she's doing. And there's another third-surdo girl far to my left who is watching me in the mirror, so I'm relaying it to her. And there's another player in front of me who can't see the first girl, and can't see me either, but can see the third girl. So as long as NOBODY MOVES AN INCH, all four of us have got the part.

Luckily nobody CAN move an inch, because we're all so tightly packed that every drummer is slotted into a tiny space of safety - bracketed by the dangerous swinging sticks and mallets all around. If I go an inch to my left I'll get whacked by that player's mallet. If I go an inch in front I'll kill the caixa player in front of me. He, in turn, is standing perfectly still and slightly turned sideways so that he isn't thrashing the player in front of him. Miraculously it all works. We sort of fuse into a single giant organism. Whenever one person starts to dance or sway or even just step in time, we all have to dance, or sway, or step in time.

There's one overall leader (Dudu) and a second leader (Rodrigo) who is in charge of just the surdos. (Surdos always have a leader. Even if you don't have leaders for any other section.) It's hilarious watching Rodrigo in action, because he's having to get about 10 new surdo players on 3 surdo parts synchronized up with 15 surdo players from last year, and he's pulling us through it all just by sheer force of will and elaborate pantomime. He is a top-level musician with a really keen sense of tempo, and watching the pained expressions that flit across his face when we drag or rush or flam is an education, and an entertainment, all in itself! Whenever things are the tiniest bit imperfect, he starts karate-chopping the parts in the air with his hands, always staring up at the ceiling as if looking to heaven above for help.

During the fastest piece, a quadrilha, the rest of the band starts sagging terribly in tempo, and Rodrigo pleads with us desperately, mutely, in pantomime: PUSH, PUSH, PUSH the rest of the band, PUSH them, PUSH them. He's pantomiming that the rest of the band is an enormous heavy obstacle and we surdos have to go go go GO GO GO GO FASTER FASTER FASTER FASTER!!!! He mimes: shove them forward, shove them forward. He starts karate-chopping the air so much he seems to be attacking some kind of gigantic aerial monster. and we all respond, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, faster, faster, faster, faster! He doesn't quit and neither do we. He mimes: GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO! He NEVER QUITS. He NEVER LETS UP. And neither do we.

I love playing here. It feels like I've always been here, like I've never left. This is my band. My home band.

After rehearsal, a round of warm goodbyes from everybody and I head off to my regular Monday visit to Carioca da Gema. Where I go every Monday. (except for those odd atypical weeks when, for some reason, I can faintly remember being in Oregon instead of in Rio.) Monday is the night of the incomparable Richah, a magnificently warm-voiced bass singer who is very famous in the samba world, and his band of Mangueira percussionists and Big Paul the seven-string guitar player. I talk to Richah later tonight - I've never worked up the guts to talk to him before - and discover he was a puxador ("puller", the main singer for the Sambodromo parade) for Mangueira, Portela, and several other escolas. Wow. He's big time. (Plus, he was really sweet when I talked to him.)

Carioca da Gema is IMPOSSIBLY packed too, just like Banga. I squirm through the crowd to the very front, find a tiny spot of room to dance, and guess who's there? Lauren and Bethan, my Verde Vai friends from London! Plus the adorable tiny tamborim player from Germany, who recognizes me from Sao Clemente. Plus several other friendly Germans who I vaguely recognize from somewhere or other. Plus my friend Pat from the Lions! Plus most of my hostel - and it's the Good Turistas tonight, they are loving it and dancing and they stay all night! More Germans start popping out of the woodwork and then I'm in a fun conversation with two of the head guys for Bloco X, the German group that I have a not-so-secret plan to play with someday. Germans and Brits everywhere! And they are all so fun!

We dance our asses off.

For some reason my samba dancing seems really ON tonight. It's flowing in a way it rarely does when I dance in the US.

I spot one more person that I recognize, sitting at a table in the back. A German? No.... One of the Brits? Irish? Dutch? He must be one of the Verde Vai players..... or did I see him at Salgueiro? Or Sao Clemente? Or from California Brazil Camp? Is he one of the Ohio choro players? Or one of the mysterious French sambistas? I walk back to the stage and ponder where I have met this guy when suddenly it dawns on me: oh my god.

He's NOT A DRUMMER. He's NOT A SAMBISTA.

He's a biologist who I went to graduate school with in SEATTLE, who I haven't seen in maybe TEN YEARS. He's from my previous life, before I had ever heard of samba. It's JASON. Who used to hang out in my office when I was studying Alaskan birds. I absolutely can't believe it. What are the chances we would run into each other ten years after grad school at a tiny little club in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil?

I go and look at him one more time and sure enough it's Jason. This time he spots and and stares at me dumbfounded, leaps up and gives me a big hug, introduces me to his friends, and we all start chattering. Yup, it's just total random coincidence. He's passing through from Paraguay.

And yet it all makes sense somehow. Because this is a Monday night in Rio, and Monday is when I see all my friends, all my friends in the world, at Banga and at Carioca da Gema.

Furiosa mp3's

A couple mp3s from Salgueiro last night.
(I have a slow connection for uploads so can only post short snippets right now, not the whole recording)

Salgueiro bateria entrance
The crowd gives such a yell because we'd been standing in the rain AN HOUR AND A HALF for them to finally get started.
(I missed the very beginning of the first repique call, btw.

The "Furiosa" break
All the hollering in the middle is coming from the bateria guys. In addition to the Furiosa yell, of course.

The fireworks break
This is where the bateria knelt down and they set off giant sparklers right in the middle of the bateria.
(The hissing is the sparklers)
After the sparklers, when you hear the surdos, the surdo players were kneeling with their drums on the ground (sideways, heads at 90degrees to ground) in front of them. They'd brace one side of the drum with a knee and hit the other side.


drum junkie notes:
The paradinha that they started with is the same one I heard at Mocidade last year:
Two-and-three.
Two-and-three-ee, ah-four-and-ONE.
(then the bateria repeats it all).

It's a new take on the classic paradinha that starts:
Two-and-three. Four-and-one.
Two-and-three-ee, ah-four-and-ONE.

You mighta always thought that whole thing starts on a "one-and-two", didn't you? But it's very clear from how the three repiques come out of it, and from how they start the next paradinha later down the line, that they feel like the bateria ended on a ONE. Which means the whole thing started on a "two-and-three". (It was also damn clear from where I stood, where I could SEE the lead guy yelling "Um, dois, tres, quat', um!" to the other two repique players. Yup, they count themselves off, and at the top of their lungs, because all 3 guys have to hit the call cold, and damn they'd better be in sync or they'll get crucified.).

All of which makes sense because a "Two-and-three" is really a very samba sort of thing to do.

O Globo article - Salgueiro & Vila Isabel

I translate newspaper articles to work on my Portuguese. So in case it is of interest, here is my translation from O Globo newspaper's news report of the Sambodromo rehearsals. If you speak Portuguese, you can read it yourself at www.oglobo.com.

******
Samba of Rio de Janeiro Excites Salgueiro - Bateria of Vila Isabel Puts on a Show with Tradition & Modernity

by
Alberto João - O Globo Online

A Sunday with a full house in Marquês de Sapucaí. Thirty thousand people were in the grandstands for the technical rehearsals of Salgueiro, with [queen of the bateria] Viviane Araújo, and Vila Isabel, with [queen of the bateria] Miss Brazil Natália Guimarães. The size of the crowd was a record for this season.

Along with the two beauties in the Avenida, the standouts of the night were the song and the singing of the members of Salgueiro, who paid homage to the city of Rio de Janeiro in their theme, and the bateria of Vila Isabel, led by Mestre Mug, which succeeded in uniting the traditional (the force of its first surdos) and the modern (paradinhas).

The Salgueiro rehearsal began with a delay of 1 hour and thirty minutes. The majority of this time was for the warm-up of the bateria. [Not so! The delay was for a TV crew - KH] Mestre Marcão and his drummers did a "mini-show" for the public that was in the grandstands of sector 1 [mp3 to be posted in next post - KH]. The high point was when the members of the bateria opened an aisle in the middle of the bateria, crouched down and set off fireworks. With a golden dress and "samba no pé" [samba in her feet, excellent samba dancing], Viviane Araújo drew applause and ovations from the people in the grandstands.



After the fireworks, the bateria of Salgueiro presented choreographies in the ala of chocalhos, and also displayed a more secure rhythm than in the first rehearsal of the escola [in December]. Mestre Marcão seems to have found the right tempo for his bateria.

Salgueiro's rehearsal was marked by the high spirits of its members. The samba-enredo [the song] about Rio do Janeiro fits the escola very well. The salgueirenses sang well, and showed that harmonia [singing of the parade members] won't be a problem for the 2008 Carnival.

In evolução [parade flow], the alas [parade sections] still have little problems, such as one member getting into another ala that was not the ala they started in.

The commissão de frente [dance group at the beginning of the parade] did not make the mistake of their first Sambodromo rehearsal, when they didn't do a single choreography in the Avenida. This time, the members put on a show for the public. They were acting as malandros [street hoods, pimps], and wearing hats. A beautiful morena led the group.

The couple of mestre-sala and porta-bandeira [the flag couple], Ronaldinho and Gleice Simpatia, exhibited smooth coordination in their dance, but they lacked a choreography that matched the song and the parade theme.

After Salgueiro, it was the turn of Vila Isabel and the bateria of Mestre Mug, who carries on his shoulders more than 30 years of service to Carnaval. With the strong work of the "instrumentos de marcação" [the first surdos], the escola has re-gained the "heavy" style in its bateria that is its tradition. However, Mestre Mug didn't forget the modern style either, and he played around with several paradinhas. The effect made the rhythm enjoyable and easy for the singer Tinga, who sang out with a "healthy voice" [powerful singing] throughout the entire rehearsal.

Miss Brazil, Natália Guimarães, queen of the bateria, was dazzling in a silver dress. Although without much improvement in her dancing of the samba, she charmed the crowd with her smile and beauty. But it's true that though she sang the samba-enredo, when it came time to samba, she just jumped up and down. [Our section of the crowd was booing her, yelling "Samba! Samba! You can't samba!" - KH]

The director of carnaval for Vila Isabel, Ricardo Fernandes, has many reasons to leave the Sambodromo content. The samba [the song] is not one of the best of Grupo Especial, but it was "in the mouths of" [sung strongly by] of the escola members, who filled all the space on the Sambodromo runway.

"Our Harmonia directors gave our members liberty to move around on the runway, but always with responsibility and attention to the rules. I think that we succeeded in finding the balance between discipline with the technical requirements and the song, and the liberty of the members," explained Ricardo Fernandes.

One of the main standouts of the Vila Isabel rehearsal was the entrance of the bateria in the second recuo [pull-out spot], which is between sectors 9 and 11 of the grandstands. The escola gave a lesson in how to not create a gap in the parade in the Avenida, and not forcing its passistas to run through the Sambodromo [to catch up with the ala in front, after the bateria has moved off the parade route], as generally happens with the majority of escolas.

The ala in front of the bateria stopped immediately after it passed the recuo, and the ala behind the bateria didn't waste any time and succeeded in closing the space, synchronized perfectly as the bateria members entered into the recuo. A lesson in parade flow by Vila Isabel, despite the size of the escola, which doesn't even have the same number of members as Salgueiro.

The ala of baianas put on quite a show. All the ladies sang the 2008 samba-enredo, "Trabalhadores do Brasil," very stronglyl.

The couple of mestre-sala and porta-bandeira, Julinho and Rute, had excitement and beauty in their dancing, but still do not appear to be totally "entrosado" (in harmony with each other, synchronized). In a few moments of the rehearsal, Rute talked with Julinho about the performance of the pair.

The commissão de frente, led by Marcelo Missalidis, used the same choreography that will be used during the official parade. This attitude is laudable, since many choreographers keep their choreographies secret and end up frustrating the "povão" [the people, the regular Brazilians] who come to see the technical rehearsals and who can't be in the Avenida during the actual Carnival.

Salgueiro and Vila Isabel will rehearse in the Sambodromo again on the 25th of January.

*******
A couple more notes from Kathleen;

Re Vila's first surdos
When Vila Isabel started up, I was around the corner and couldn't see them, and thought I must have read the schedule wrong and that it must be Mangueira, because the primeiros were so strong! Later I faintly heard the second surdos, came around the corner and saw all the blue-and-white, and realized it must be Vila Isabel. I've never before noticed how powerful their first surdos are.

Re Salgueiro's tempo:
I clocked Salgueiro at a steady 138, both last night in the Sambodromo and also in their quadra on Wednesday. (Save one moment in the Sambodromo when the repinique called them in too fast, but they settled back to 138 within ten minutes.) I have been so happy that the escolas have started slowing down their tempos in the last couple years. Samba swings best and is at its most dance-able (I think) in the range of 135-142, with 138 being just about my favorite. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this. I heard lots of complaints about escolas playing too fast, and the Monobloco and Banga leaders both used to get positively furious if we tried to play any faster than 140. '"It just doesn't SWING when it's faster!" they kept saying.

But the big escolas had all inched up their tempos slowly over the years. If you have the dvd that shows the Carnival winners of the past twenty years, watch the tempo creeps up from year to year. The story is that it's because the parades kept getting bigger, but there is a fixed time limit, they need a faster tempo to try to get everybody to march faster. Trying to get all 4500 marchers across the finish line within the required 1 hour and a 20 minutes. Otherwise they have points deducted for time faults. (Grande Rio lost the championship in 2006 by going just 1 minute over the time limit and being docked one-tenth of a point!)

They'd started playing at 150 or even 160 by the late 1990s, with the apex, or nadir, being a few years back when Mangueira paraded at a horrifying 170bpm. (I heard this from Fred Castillo of Monobloco, who was watching them at home on his tv and was so shocked he got out a metronome to time them.)

Nobody really likes it that fast, and, to everyone's relief, many escolas finally slowed down last year. But Salgueiro was still lightspeed last year. So I am really pleased to hear them playing at such a beautiful, swinging, danceable tempo. It's the first time I've ever heard them at this tempo, and they really sound fantastic! O Globo may have preferred Vila, but I loved Salgueiro best.

Salgueiro & Vila Isabel at the Sambodromo

Went to the Sambodromo last night for Salgueiro and Vila Isabel. I gotta say, the Salgueiro bateria is on fire this year! All the baterias are always more or less fantastic in terms of their playing ability. What makes the difference for me is the song itself (catchy or not?), the breaks (musical? or annoying? or none?), and the energy. And Salgueiro has it all this year.

I haven't heard a lot of the songs yet but Salgueiro's the only one that gets stuck in my head. I really like it. And their breaks are good, they've got some fun choreography, but oh man, it's the ENERGY that's off the scale this year. As usual there are a few breaks where (say) just caixas & thirds keep playing, or just tambs, or whatever, and every time one of those breaks happened, the entire rest of the bateria put their hands in the air and started screaming and yelling and jumping. I know it was planned, but there was a genuine energy in it and it was totally infectious, and the whole crowd started screaming. Several of the primeiro & segundo players would hoist their surdos in the air whenever they had the opportunity, Olodum-style, and I saw at least one tamborim player throw his tamborim about 20 feet in the air (I hope he caught it again! couldn't see).

(Vila Isabel's also got a shekere player who does a pretty dramatic throw. But for some reason it had Salgueiro's colors! A blue-and-white bateria with a red-and-white shekere flying high in the air.)

And Salgueiro had the best throatiest yell of any bateria: FURIOSA!!! Could have been cheesy but it was electrifying.

Furiosa's the nickname for the Salgueiro bateria. They've almost all got a nickname that is plastered all over their t-shirts & often on the drum heads:
Mangueira - Bateria Surdo Um ("One Surdo", because they have no segunda)
Salgueiro - Bateria A Furiosa ("Furious", also meaning intense, wild)
Unidos da Tijuca - Bateria Pura Cadencia ("Pure Cadence" or "Pure Rhythm")

I was cracking up last year when I spotted that one was Bateria Nota Dez (Score Ten, the top score), and another was Bateria Nota Mil (Score Thousand, an impossible score), and another, topping them all, Bateria Dez Mil (Bateria Ten-Thousand).

Vila Isabel yelled their enredo instead: "Trabalhadores! Do Brasil!" which is their enredo (theme) this year.

will post mp3s of the two bateria warm-ups as soon as I get back to my own computer.

Had my usual Sambodromo experience of having both my camera & sound recorder out, and having some friendly concerned Brazilian tap my on the shoulder to say "Cuidado com as maquinas!! Cuidado! E muito perigoso aqui!" They're right, it is muito perigoso, but the danger is much more having your bag sneakily ripped open from behind than having something snatched out of your very hand. I always feel safest with the recorder out, gripped tight in my hand and visibly tied to my wrist.

Anyway the woman & I then started talking and she's one of those great Brazilians who's a complete escola junkie. She started ticking off on her hands: "I've paraded with Caprichosos de Pilares, Uniao da Ilha, Imperio Serrano, Salgueiro, and Portela." I asked "In different years?" and she said "No no, in the same day! I paraded with all five in the same day! I would finish one parade and run then around the Sambodromo, past my car where I had all the costumes, and change my costume, and run to the next escola."

She added sadly "But I can't do that this year because my car was stolen in December." She added "Sem carro, nao vai dar, com as fantasias" - without a car, it just won't work, with the costumes. (Usually two costumes can completely fill a car, so I can't imagine how she did 5!) I had just read in the paper today that a car was stolen every 12 minutes last year in Rio. I wanted to ask her if her insurance would cover it, but the Salgueiro bateria started up.

Raining in Rio

Still seething from the bad turistas, I head out into the rain and hop on one of those "insane" buses, which delivers me unharmed to Lapa, yes, the same Lapa that I have "done" maybe fifty dozen times already and am still not tired of.

Tonight, for a change, I do NOT go to an escola. I'm not as fond of the Saturday night parties as I am of the technical rehearsals. You can never really see the bateria very well on Saturday. I would have headed to Mocidade, but it's been raining so heavily the streets are flooded. So instead I head to Rio Scenarium to meet Pat and her friends.

Rio Scenarium, which is one of my 4 favorite clubs in Lapa (all 4 always have excellent music and are totally charming in their decor) is on little section of the Rua do Lavradio. It used to be all by itself, but bars in Rio tend to attract a chatty horde of folks hanging out in the street ,which attracts street vendors, which sooner or later inspires somebody to open another bar, and so it goes.

By now, turns out that little section of street has been all spiffed up since last year! A bunch more clubs have opened and at least 2 others now have live music (and pretty good pagode, to judge from what I can hear). A whole section of the street is closed to through traffic and lined with little bars, and of course the street vendors. The cute old buildings are all lit up now with new colored lights. It's lovely.

I head on in and it is PACKED inside. But the great thing about Rio Scenarium is that it's got 3 whole stories, so vast and sprawling and so loaded with strange old furniture that you can always find not only a seat, but usually an entire sofa set all to yourself, if you just climb high enough. And from all 3 stories you can look down and see the stage. My favorite pagode band Casuarina is playing. I'm a little bummed that they seem to have added a drumset, but they've still got such marvelous lineup, with 2 pandeiros and great seven-string guitar and a great rebolo player. And they actually sing in key. So I forgive them.

I'm watching from the second floor when Casuarina does something that startles me:

They start to sing in harmony.

Oh!

I guess they don't normally do that in pagode. I hadn't ever realized. It's downright shocking to hear vocal harmony in pagode.

And it's terrific. I can't believe how much texture and beauty it adds. I start to dance and just can't stop.

I dance my way through the entire vast Rio Scenarium, looking for Pat. Never find her but see many fabulous sights: an entire wall covered with antique clocks. Another wall of mirrors in lavishly ornate frames. An large assortment of spurs and saddles, one of them mounted on a life-size wooden donkey. A set of feather masks. An old motorcycle. A collection of radios. An actual buggy, sans horse. A ceiling that has a set of upside-down furniture attached to it. An enormous glass cabinet, covering a huge wall, completely filled with thousands of tiny glass vials of mysterious powders. An art show that includes three incredible modern-art quilts.

I have a caipirinha. The music is unbelievably good, and I don't think it's just the caipirinha. I'm so happy here.

I dance and dance and dance.

Eventually the music ends and I have to leave. I worm my way through the crowd for hours to pay my bill, and eventually realize the pandeiro player is standing next to me. I tap him on the shoulder to thank for his beautiful playing - he's very pleased to have somebody thank him! - and I'm making my way out when a guy, seated near me, tugs on my arm. I lean down to hear what he has to say and he says "Parabens. Voce e uma moca muita bonita." (Congratulations. You're a very pretty girl.)

Now that is one thing I did NOT expect to hear, in this crowd of, oh, maybe 50,000 gorgeous young Brazilian girls in their little skirts. It must be the little flower that I have pinned in my hair tonight, huh? I don't know if he is just being kind or what, but I say thanks, with a big smile, and dance my way on out. Now there is the Cidade Maravilhosa for you. The city where EVERY woman is a "moca muita bonita" to somebody, and that somebody just walks right on up and says so.

I'm not ready to be done for the night. What can I do now? I walk toward the arches of Lapa and suddenly I hear.....

BANGA!!!!! Oh my god! It's the second Banga show! I had assumed I would have to miss it, but it's still going on! I talk the ticket-taker down to half price because it's so late, and charge on in there and there's a HUGE crowd and they are doing all my favorites, and there are all my friends again and we dance and sing and jump around. I get a whole hour and a half of the show, till 4am. Damn, I think, partway through, I think, damn, you know what, Banga is really the best show in town. If you REALLY like to dance, if you REALLY like samba but you also like funk and rock, if you want to hear people pushing modern Brazilian music, and definitely if you are the kind of person who would like a band that has an 11:2 ratio of percussionists to string players, this is the band for you! There's my alltime favorite guest singer, Sergiao, and he's so fantastic the crowd won't let him go - they insist on encore after encore. One of my favorite Banga girls, a magnificent blond girl who I've always called the Valkyrie, gets the entire crowd into an insane game of holding hands and running through each others hands. More and more people join in until they're all running at top speed underneath the bridges of hands and then running the other way being the bridges. It's crazy and everybody's laughing and out of breath. In the next tune everybody joins in an enormous ciranda, a circle dance that lurches around and around the entire stage. Brazilians are such good dancers and can dance so sexy, but they get so silly and playful sometimes, doing these hilarious, simple little kid's dances, which they are appallingly bad at, but they throw themselves into it with all the intensity of a pack of 8-year-olds. It's so cool.

During the next tune I get into a long talk with an adorable guy who makes beautiful jewelry out of fossil shark teeth and feathers and pieces of aluminum. I buy two pieces, he's thrilled, he tells me all about making them, he shows me the fossil shark teeth, he tells me where his studio is. He mentions he's from Niteroi. I say "Niteroi, where the escola Viradouro is?" His face completely lights up. "Yes! I'm Viradouro! I'm Viradouro!" he says delightedly, tapping his chest ("I'm Viradouro" means "I'm a fan of Viradouro, and a member of Viradouro, and I grew up with Viradouro, and Viradouro is the escola that I love with all my heart.") . He's totally thrilled that an American has heard of his escola. Presto, another new friend.

5am. Birds are starting to sing. I hop a minivan back to my bed, and think of those two Brits who were holed up in the hostel tonight looking for an English-language show on the TV, because "it's raining in Rio and there's nothing to do".

The bad turistas

I often spend a few nights in hostels when on short stays here. Usually the hostel travellers are pretty cool and are happy to meet someone who knows some ins & outs of Rio. Pat & I had a tag-along crowd all week of a bunch of friendly American girls from Texas who hadn't known about the escolas at all, but got totally into them once we took them along to a couple rehearsals.

But then there's the other type.

Tonight I was chatting to a new couple. Brits. I asked how long they're here and they said, "Oh, we figured we'd do Rio in a couple days, then do Salvador, then..."

I think, how can you "do" a vast international city like this? In two days?

It's been raining heavily all night and I was about to invite them to come along to Lapa with me. To the fabulous Rio Scenarium, where we could get out of the rain and see some fine samba (the most bizarre and spectacular decor of any club I've ever been in). "Oh, no, LAPA! We already did Lapa. Had enough of that." Had they been to Rio Scenarium? Or Carioca da Gema? "No, but we've done Lapa. We don't want to go back there." Would they like to see some samba? "We're not really into that." (wait a sec, why did they come to Rio if they don't like samba?)

Any interest in seeing an escola-de-samba? Completely blank look and a flat "No."

The guy suddenly turns to me aggressively and says "What's the deal with the bus drivers here? They're complete maniacs. What's wrong with them? They're insane."

Normally I would be the first to agree, but something in his tone gets to me. He's criticizing MY CITY. I feel my hackles go up and suddenly I'm defending the bus drivers. The bus drivers here are GREAT. Sure, they drive fast, but they can get away with it because they know what they're doing. I think of the brilliant bus driver I rode with the other night, his skill at barreling that bus from Central clear to Recreio in just an hour and a half, and the bus drivers who inched their buses through the entire crazed Unidos da Tijuca crowd without even bruising anybody's toe.

Now the couple has launched on a complaining streak to another couple: Rio's too rainy. It's no fun. There's nothing to do. All there is to do in Rio is go to the beach and see the Cristo and with the rain you can't do either. They thought Rio would be "this amazing tropical paradise" but it's a sort of a drag. There's no English-language shows on the TV. They don't like the buses. They don't like the streets. It's dirty. It's noisy. They don't like the food. They don't like the coffee. They don't like the beer. They don't want to know the language. They don't want to talk to the people. They don't want to hear the music.

I'm seething now.

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? Why did you come here? What did you WANT?

Maybe they were expecting an idyllic tropical retreat and were surprised to find.... a city. With buses - fast buses. It does take people by surprise sometimes: Rio is NOT a tropical Caribbean island. It's a VERY big, VERY busy, CITY.

But why travel halfway around the world fixated on a beach and a statue and a made-up imagine of a Caribbean island in your head, and then refuse to enjoy the city for what it really is? Why refuse to take all these golden opportunities to get to know the actual culture and the actual people of one of the most vibrant, busiest, noisiest, craziest cities in the world? The Cidade Maravilhosa. Why not focus on the things that make this city truly unique? It's not the Cristo, it's not even the beach, that makes this city what it is. It's the PEOPLE. So it's raining, so what? (And, just by the way, THIS IS THE ATLANTIC RAIN FOREST, which means, RAIN, duh) There are fifty fantastic music acts happening tonight, and thousands of wonderful Brazilians chattering in every bar on every street corner, ready to become your friends, and all those "insane" buses just waiting to take you there. Go to a churrasco or a kilo place, go have some salgadinhos and a Skol and get to know somebody. At the very least, go up onto the roof and sit in a hammock and watch the rain, Brazil style, and have a Skol and talk to your friends. But don't sit there flipping TV channels looking for an English movie.

If all you want is a beach and a statue, jeez, pour some sand on your lawn and go stare at the statue in your town square, save your money. Just stay out of my city.