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.