Jacare in Rio

happy trails

2006-01-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

30 jan 2006

We fly out today. By this time tomorrow I´ll be back in Bubbaland.

Yesterday was great. Everywhere we went, samba kept breaking out. On the way to have an early lunch, there was a samba de mesa in a little bar on the side street. Just a few friends singing songs and having a beer or two. The sort of bucolic scene which would immediately attract police brutality in Austin, the "live music capital of the world".

After that we went to Xuxa´s party in a quiosque behind the airport. Cool spot right on the Bahia Guanabara in a place which doesn´t smell bad. There were about 150 of Xuxa´s closest friends there. BBQ, beer, samba. There´s this cool group of folks called "sambamantes" (samba lovers) who go out together to enjoy live music, mostly samba. They were there and were playing and singing along with the boom box. I continue to be amazed at how everyone in Brazil knows all the words to all the songs. How can that be? I don´t even know the words to one song in English!!

Anyhow, a huge thunderstorm came through and so the Brazilians decided to fight back by partying even harder. So there we were, singing away in a driving rain storm with cars literally floating down the street. As the rain let up, a samba de roda broke out and everyone started switching off singing and dancing in the roda. As Spiro says, "Without the song, there is no rumba". Without the song, there is no samba de roda. Big fun.

We then walked back to Flamengo through the Aterro do Flamengo. Beautiful tropical park between the city and the bay. Finally wound up at the street corner in Catete, our usual Sunday hang. There was no bateria due to the rain but, in typical Brazilian fashion making lemonade out of lemons, there was a pagode. A good one. All about groove and the song. Everyone playing and listening. No drunks or show offs. There were venders with ice cold beer and churrasco. All the neighbors were there. It really doesn´t get much better than that.

Went to Parme pizza afterward for a light midnight snack of all-you-can-eat pizza. I don´t even know how many pieces I ate. At the end they bring things like chocolate and strawberry pizza with whipped cream on the side.

After that I fell into a little coma and woke up this morning still in paradise.

Off to the beach for one last walk. Tomorrow I´ll be dodging bowheads driving SUV´s and talking on cell phones.

Jacare signing off. j

Don Quixote

2006-01-29T16:18:00.000-08:00

29jan 2006

There are stages of drunkeness. I think they are somethihng like this:

1. You´re clever
2. You´re pretty
3. You can sing
4. You´re bullet proof
5. You´re invisible

Xuxa was up there in the higher reaches last night/this morning when he returned from Salgueiro. "You think you're Don Quixote" is in the bulletproof/invisible range I'm pretty sure. Well anyhow, while trying to put sheets on his bed, he got into it with the fan which we have now nicknamed "Jaws". The fan tried to eat the bed sheets. Xuxa fought back valiently and then someone realized that they could actually kill the beast by unplugging it. It took a little longer than one would hope to come to this realization. This morning the fan looks a little like the Terminator near the end of the movie. Most of it´s skin is missing but it still works.

It´s noon and Xuxa is trying to figure out how he´s gonna get his game face back on by 1400 when the next party begins.

Samba was good last night. Canarios das Larangeiras were able to move back to Lapa and the rehearsal went much better. About half way through, a bunch of young guys from Badalo showed up and the samba started to cook. When Mestre Folia took over it got really hot. It´s just what you would expect, I bunch of 16 year-old kids who play their butts off and who are heavily steeped in funk as well as samba. Very, very funky. Hot tight breaks. Big fun.

About 3am some people in stage 3 infitrated the bateria so I we left.

For some cool samba de mesa check out the area of Lapa on the other side of the arches around where Rua do Riachuelo and Av Mem de Sa come togther. Xuxa is pretty sure he was there last night. Lots of old samba houses enjoying a resurgence of popularity. Almost every day there are two or three rodas starting around 8 or 9 PM. Be careful walking around that area late at night. There is a heavy drug scene just up the hill behind Asa Branca. Stay on the main streets. Take a taxi home. j

smorgasbord of life

2006-01-28T08:37:00.000-08:00

28jan 2006

It was either the hot dog, pronounced "awchee dawguee" with a total of 4 syllables or the little quail eggs. You haven´t lived fully until you spend 4 hours in a third world bathroom with alternating vomit and diarrhea, all the while being observed by a 150 (or more) pound Mastiff named Hector. Everytime I came up for air old Hector, with his fur coat about 4 sizes too big was just sitting there looking at me with two little strings of drool coming out of either side of his mouth. Way bummer.

Bamba the beer drinking dog was spotted the other day in Catete. He was hanging around a BBQ pit working the crowd.

Samba has been good and is getting serious. The directors all starting to look stressed. I still greatly prefer the Group A and below schools. The Grupo Especial schools are just a mob scene. In the bateria it's a bunch of the same players anyhow. The same guys I play with in Estacio also play in Salgueiro. I´m meeting new people all the time and it all began with blocos. The blocos are your entry point as a foreigner.

In another little slice of life and death, Hilda was walking along Rua das Larangeiras a couple of days ago when she heard a siren (not uncommon). Suddenly, a police car stopped right beside her and out came a big, big automatic weapon with a policeman attached. He was yelling "lay down!" at some kid with a pair of shorts, no shirt, no shoes. (The kid obviously had a gun hidden somewhere. Maybe in his armpit?) Anyhow, all Brazilians and repeat tourists here know that your chances of getting killed by a policeman shooting into the crowd are much higher than that of getting killed by a bandit. Everyone took off running and trying to get behind whatever. Anyhow, the kid was subdued and dragged off to jail and no one got shot ... yet.

Xuxa got here yesterday and the games have begun. Not to be deterred by a torrential downpour, he somehow talked us into walking over to the praca Sao Salvador to have a beer and a snack. Seemed easy enough until we had to cross the street. As you may remember, I'll had a little trouble with the whole crossing the street thing here. Anyhow, there we were. Not a car in site. We darted across the street in ankle deep water. I was being the rabbit. Clever. Quick. That´s when I saw the bus ... and the water, lots of it. The bus looked like a speed boat and it was headed our way. I yelled "Bus!! Make a run for it!!" and away we went, three wet gringos with umbrellas sprinting along a two foot sidewalk just ahead of a bus wake. Pretty exciting actually.

Anyhow we had some carne seca acebolada, fries and more than a few beers. By this time the rain had let up to the point where you could kind of see across the street and so we decided to head out for Badalo in Santa Teressa. We got to ST and promptly got lost. We wandered around for a few minutes without getting robbed and finally found the quadra. You should visit the Badalo quadra (I think the street is Paraiso and it's on the side of ST that is right next to the sambodromo). Very nice people and a kickass bateria headed up by Folia from Santa Marta. Good player and a good director. You see heavy players all over town with Badalo t-shirts on. Anyhow, we spent some time hanging with the president and decided to move Xuxa's party to the quadra because of the continuing threat of rain forcast for Sunday. It's perfect.

The bateria was cancelled due to the rain but samba broke out anyway. Some kids ranging in age from 13-21 lined up and were running through the breaks with Folia leaading/teaching. Some of those kids could play like crazy and all of them were having a great time. Playing a little samba on Saturday at 1AM. j

Eminem and sewage

2006-01-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

24jan 06

First, a tip: The little "springs" bubbling up out of the sidewalks are not springs. Step over them.

It seems that the sewage situation has gotten bad enough that it has finally made it into the public consciousness. Today in the paper there was a picture of a sewage pipe draining directly into the water on some beach nearby. It came from a condominium across the street. They build these giant buildings here and dump the sewage right into the closest body of water. On the news was a picture of several tons of dead fish killed by algae overgrowth from raw sewage. The good news is that the government has promised to run some tests and do some studies.

Also in today´s paper was an article about the canals of Fundao and Cunha. These are the two beauties seen/smelled by 100% of visitors to Rio as they go into town from the international airport. A study revealed that with $66 million American dollars they could dredge out all the sewer mud and clean the place up. Hell, the USA fired $30 million dollars worth of missles at Bagdad in 30 minutes trying to kill Saddam!! 66 million is nothing. Clean that "sh*t´" up, holmes!!

Eminem made the news today. The article started by quoting Jorge Bush as calling him "the greatest threat to our children since polio." The author of the article argued that that alone was enough to demand respect. Let me see. What do I fear worse; A foul mouthed punk from the streets of Detroit or a not very bright megalomaniac religious fanantic with nuclear weapons?

I guess I´ll take Polio.

Tonight starts the big push to our the last weekend. I know it´s only Tuesday but this is Rio and Carnaval. The Xuxa arrives Friday so it´s unlikely that I´ll have time to write during the weekend. I´ll take notes on his movements and send a report later. j

psycho killer

2006-01-22T07:27:00.000-08:00

22jan 06

I just realized that I don´t know how to spell "psycho". phsyco. pyshco. pschyo. I think I might have dyslexia or something.

Anyhow, there is a bird out back over the fence somewhere who seems to be singing the sound track from the shower scene in "Psycho". I´ve had it with him. He´ll have to be boiled and eaten before Xuxa arrives.

On the creative robbery front, the gangsters here in Rio have placed observers in the airport. They watch for dumb rich people to come out with a gold chain and a Rolex. They follow them and then pull them over and rob them. They just robbed a busload of 33 British horse race fans and made off the $200 K. The Brits descibed them as "truculent". Not to worry. They published a composite drawing in the paper. I think there are at least four guys in the bar next door who look exactly like the robber. I´m gonna just hang around and see which of them acts truculent and then I´ll call the cops.

Through my friend Jorge I found another cool samba hang last night. In the late 70s/early 80s there was a bloco in Catete called Embalo. They apparently got pretty good as they made it up to the Sapucai and were actually involved in it´s inaugeration. There is a move to put the bloco back together and we attended the first rehearsal last night. It was that perfect scene that I love. At the foot of the Santo Amaro morro, the whole neighborhood came out to play some samba, sing some songs and let the kids run wild. It was like a samba playground. The people were soooo nice. At one point I tried to sit down in this plastic chair and one of the locals wouldn´t let me saying that it was too weak and that some folks had fallen in it. He got a stiffer one for me. I´d never seen this guy in my life!! The fun went on till about 1AM when we had to stop so that the neighbors could sleep.

We went to Sapucai on Friday to see the technical rehearsals of Vila Isabel, Viradouro and Salgueiro. Remember what I said about these things getting a little too popular? Well, apparently on this particular night, there must have been a huge moron convention in town. Over to the side in the stands there are the usual little stairs commomly used for going up and down the stands to and from your seat. The moron convention arrived and decided, "Oh look!! There are all these great spots with no one in them. We´ll just stay here." This, of course, trapped about 400,000 people with full bladders in the stands. When you tried to go down the stairs, people got mad because you were bothering them. At that point my usual polite "Da Licenca" stopped being a request and became more of a warning shot. I meant to give them the option of either getting out of the way or being moved along in front of me as I exited. Either way, I was going out. Quite an experience. One I´ll skip in the future.

Aside from the morons in the stands, the rehearsal was really unbelieveable. I really mean that. These once simple run throughs to get used to parading and playing and finishing on time have turned into a competition. Sort of an opening round in the run up to Carnaval. All of the baterias where amazing. Tight and swinging with very cool breaks. All the schools are now developing these long phrases with call and responses from the various sections. This is the new evolution of the vocabulary. I predict that, in two years or so, two or three of the coolest ones will mainstream, that is, they will be known by everyone and can thus become part of the common vocabulary of sambistas everywhere, no matter what school they are from. That's my read on how it works.

In my opinion, Viradouro carried the day by a large margin. That bateria is hot, hot, hot and mestre Cica is the Webster´s Dictionary of the emerging vocabulary of samba. The dude is a heavyweight. Not only was the bateria smokin', they also put on a show with all the alas in colorful shirts, baianas in the big red skirts that twist back and forth, etc. They also had these 5 or 6 mostly nude women up on these 30 foot high quadraped poles riskng their lives and dancing away while swinging sparklers around. Quite a show.

Went to Monobloco the other night just to check it out. It´s different from my other experiece here in Rio. It is egalitarian in that there are people of all colors, sizes and sexes playing whatever instrument they want. Women on caixa for instance. On the other hand, it seems to be more of a school. I think it´s where rich mostly white guys can come and pay to learn how to play samba. You have to arrive in October, pay and attend all the rehearsals (they take role) in order to parade and play the shows. They rehearse in the Fundacao Progresso which is a very cool, old, huge building under the arches in Lapa. The building is so big and industrial looking that it remeinded me of Blade Runner or something. I had a dream about aliens invading in that same building that night in fact. (I still haven´t completely gotten over that octopus thing.) That's the good news. The bad news is that the acoustics in the place are horrid. The only way to hear the bateria is to be in it. Otherwise it´s a huge roar.

Anyhow, the music and breaks of Monobloco are interesting and well-rehearsed but it´s really not my taste. Too western for me.

I got an e-mail about 6 months ago from someone in England where a debate was raging about whether there is "clave" in Brazilain music. Of course there is. When the director looks at you and points his fingers in opposite directions and yells "Cruzou porra!!!" that pretty much means that there is indeed "clave" and that you don´t know where it is. j

africans, bugs and parasites

2006-01-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

21jan 06

I´ve really gotten behind on this whole thing as I have been sleeping eating or going to samba straight for about a week.

While I was at Bambas last week, Alex´s wife was telling the story of how her long time parasite friend who lived in her gall bladder had finally overstayed his welcome and had to be evicted. He didn´t go quietly as he took her gall bladder with him.

I haven´t thought much about parasites over the past 30 years but I´m guessing that she had shistosomiasis, a worm you get from fresh water and that can live comensally in your gall bladder for years. Chip has some books on his shelf and can check my facts on this.

Anyhow, the important thing is that this little encounter led to an epiphany. I love these little momnets of clarity that come only once in a great while. It was at this moment that I realized that, for me to like it, music must have 3 essential ingredients. Africans, bugs and parasites. Think about it. Where does the best music in latin America come from? Wherever there are Africans. There also happen to be pesky little problems like malaria, dengue, Chaga´s disease, and leprosy, just to name a few. Here in Brasil, if you get out of the "Bug Belt" as my friend Bercu calls it, the quality of the samba goes way down. Even in the USA most of our great music came from New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta. At the battle of Vicksburg, yellow fever killed more people than war wounds. Bugs and Africans baby. That´s the ticket. No Africans, no bugs, no parasites.... skip it.

You never know what´s going to happen around here. The other day this German couple was telling me about their experience in climbing the rock of Gavea. This is a mountain west of town over which the sun sets every day. They described how they free climbed on cliffs 10 meters high without ropes and how delightful it was to reach the top where there was a bon fire and fireworks and airplanes flying by. They had a great tine.

As it turns out (as reported in the paper), there had been a simultaneous expedition mounted by some teenagers. They got lost in the dark and set off fireworks in a call for help. The fireworks set the mountain on fire and required fly overs by airplanes who were dumping stuff on the fire to put it out.

I guess everything depends on one's point of view. Life continues to be a game of inches.

I met the reining Rainha da Embaixada das Caricatas at Sao Clemente the other night. The embaixada is a hot dog stand in the terrerao, a big entertainment area beside the sambadrome during carnaval. All these cross dresser dudes, Xuxa's friends of course, are there selling hot dogs to raise money for their club. The sentinel feature of the whole thing is the fact that they are all in drag and have a big rubber hot dog stuck on their heads.

Anyhow, "Samule" as the queen is called was at Sao Clemente in all her glory. The girl can dance. She´s about my height, 6'3" more or less with about 6" heels on and bright yellow and black panty hose. Flowers all over the place. She looked a little like a bumble bee with his head stuck in a bouquet of flowers. All the little kids were following her around and I went over to introduce myself and say "hey" from Xuxa. Nice girl. Said she´d come to our party at the end of the month. The sort of odd thing is that, as I made my way back to the bateria, I noticed that the children had begun to follow me instead. ???

I have lots more to report but I have to go for a walk. j

Priests gone bad and more

2006-01-16T13:29:00.000-08:00

16jan 06

Things are perking along here in sambaland. Not as wild as usual and I attribute this to the conspicuous absence of our friend Xuxa. Remember he´s the guy who threatened to use foam rubber in his drag costume a couple of years ago. Getting Xuxa wound up and listening to his one-liners makes for great copy. He´s the man with his finger on the pulse of Rio. The `X` factor as it were.

We miss you Xuxa Bob.

The Bambas do Catete met for the first time yesterday. It was just like we never left. Great group of people on the street corner playing samba. I cannot say enough about street corner culture here. People are out on the street playing, singing and dancing with friends instead of watching TV or something. Thank God most people here still don´t have a computer. The bateria was full of little kids playing and dancing instead of killing cops in a video game. Big fun. We´re definitely part of the neighborhood.

In a "bar da esquina" recently opened by our friend Lica, I met one of the directors of Cacique de Ramos. He invited me out any Sunday to the pagode they have. It´s where all the big name pagodeiros got started and honed their chops. Unfortunately, it´s at exactly the same time as Bombas. I´m here to play.

I will make an exeption tomorrow. I usually go to Estacio for the Tuesday technical rehearsal but, tomorrow Marcos Suzano and Durval Pereira are playing with Pife Moderno at the CCC downtown. I´ve never seen Suzano live. Durval is a bad, bad, bad dude on the zabumba. Pife Moderno is sort of like forro flute.

I started a zabumba class today with Durval at the Maracatu Brasil around the corner. Great class. If you´re ever here this time of year, check out the oficinas de verao. Cheap and great. They say that if you learn new hard stuff as you get older, it keeps you from getting Alzheimer's. I´m good to go cause, baby, that left hand bacalhao stuff is funky. Durval can force you to dance with only his left hand. The dude is bad.

The once very cool sambadrome rehearsals have been discovered in a big way. They now cause traffic jams all over the area. It's still worth it but you have to go early and just plan on staying for a while. Friday we´ll have Viradouro, Salgueiro and Vila Isabel. I'll be there.

Speaking of Viradouro, they had to move their usual Sunday street rehearsal. It seems that a group of idiot drug traffickers from the morro nearby had a problem with their colors. Red and white are a rival gang´s colors. What is up with that ? Savages.

In the news of the weird department, a Bahian priest refuses to lay low. Last week he made the news when it was found that he was giving mass in various costumes. Dressing like a woman, dressing like Iyamanja and others. Needless to say, "The Church" took a dim view of the whole thing and sent him on vacation to the interior of Bahia. Somehow he let it be known that he was being courted to come out in pictures in several magazines. One can only imagine which ones. He was seen in the paper today with a cute little skirt and some high heels.

Maybe if Jerry Falwell got himself some high heels and a little lipstick he would lighten up a little. Laugh a little Jerry. Jesus loves you.

Tonight is forro with Xaxados e Perdidos at Severyna. Nice little scene with great Forro Pe de Serra. Just 3 guys laying it down hard with acoustic instruments. j

samba is heating up

2006-01-12T08:39:00.000-08:00

12jan 06

Things are getting really good here. On the environmental front, the Brazilian Trifid called gigoga continues to wreak havoc. While trying to dodge it on a beach called Quebra Mar, swimmers noted a funny color in the water. There was rumor of toxic algae. The health department encouraged swimmers not to panic and came right out to do some tests. That's where the good news bad news begins. As it turns out, there were no toxic algae. The bad news is that the funny color was from raw sewage.

This whole raw sewage in the water thing kinda gives me the creeps.

Night before last I went to the Estacio technical rehearsal. They've redone their quadra and it's really nice. Also nice are the people in the area. They seem glad to have visitors. I immediately ran into about 6 or 8 guys I've known from other baterias. They took me over to a bar where I was introduced to the mestre and several other folks. I was made to feel completely at home.

The bateria of Estacio absolutely kicks!! The mester is very creative and very clear and the bateria well-rehearsed. The groove was heavy and tight.

Last night was round two at Sao Clemente technical rehearsal. The same group of friends were there and I fell right into it. Played my butt off for 3 hours. I'm guessing the tempo was in the 150 range, maybe a little faster. It was smoking. I can tell you that for sure. The guys in the bateria seemed to accept me without reservation and I had an absolute blast.

After it was over, the guys gave me a ride home. I have to tell you that this is what I have always dreamed of here. It has taken awhile to put together but it's finally happening for me, at least in this part of Rio.

In my opinion, the secret to being able to play and make friends here is in several things:

1. Learn to speak portuguese. Big door opener.

2. Learn to play caixa or maybe repenique. If you're from outside, you probably won't be playing surdo. Too much responsibility to give to an unknown.

3. Frequent blocos in your area. I met 100% of these guys in various blocos. It's much easier to play without pressure in the blocos and they get to see and hear you play. They will then vouch for you at the bigger schools. There is a lot of overlap in the baterias and before you know it, you'll know lots of people.

Anyhow, my right hand is swollen. I'm off to Suzano's class. j

animal crackers in my soup

2006-01-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

10Jan 06

I somehow got really behind here. Lots of stuff to report.

First of all, I was wrong about Suzano. There is an advanced workshop as well 1100-1300 daily this week. Guess where I´ll be?

Second, we took at little side trip on Saturday to Guaratiba. If you don´t have a car forget it but, if you find yourself with a car a want to go somewhere, this is a pretty cool place. You go south down the beaches from Ipanema to Leblon to Barra, Recreio, etc, Brumari and you get to Guaratiba. Beautiful drive. My friend Noah says that some of the best boogey boarding in South America can be found in Brumari.

Anyhow, there is a restaurant there called Bira, run by an old surfer. First guy to shape boards in Rio. We had the moqueca mixta. When they say ´mixta´ they really mean it around here. They brought out this big pot of boiling stuff that looked like paella with the rice on the side. One of the guys started fishing around in it and that´s when I spotted the octopus. Big juicy pieces of octopus floating around in there. I´m not easily shocked (I was a gynecologist in a previous life after all) but all I could think of was that thing from the movie Alien which wrapped it´s arms around that guy´s face, stuck it´s tongue down his throat and empregnated him with a little beast which later jumped out of his chest. The guy across from me must have mistaken the grimace on my face for one of delight. As he was afraid that he might have to wrestle me for the octupus, he began to bargain with me. I discreetly moved my knife and fork into the sign of the cross and placed it between my face and the octopus. Without insulting him I began to assure him that I would get around to it and that, in the meantime, he should eat as much as he wanted. In fact, I argued, just take all of it to your plate (way over there on your plate) and save some for me.

Anyhow, once I dispatched the octopus, the rest of the moqueca was fantastic. I recommend this place.

Lots of other stuff has happened but I can´t remember much of it. Mangueira was a big flop at their Sambodromo rehearsal. They tried some marching stuff like the college bands do and it turned into a big mess. The once enjoyable sambadrome rehearsals have been discovered and are now packed beyond belief and the source of 2 hour traffic jams.

The Rolling Stones are recording a live DVD on Copacabana beach 18 Feb. Claro or some other big company is building a walkway from the C. Palace over Av. Atlantica to the stage. There are about 12 million people in Rio. I expect about 6 million of them to try to go to Copacabana for this show. I´ll be waiting for the DVD.

Rumor has it that Estacio has redone their quadra. I´ve always loved that bateria and the people. I plan to go over there for a technical rehearsal.

There are several new sambistas around. We went to see one last night at Severyna. Moyses Marques is the same kid who sings forro with Xaxados e Perdidos. He held court in front of an adoring crowd and really put on a good show. You can also catch him at Carioca da Gema na Lapa. Next Monday he´ll be back at Severyna doing forro.

The advanced Suzano course rocks. Lots of cool Suzano only rides.

It´s naptime. j

so far so good

2006-01-09T05:31:00.000-08:00

09Jan 06  Rio de Janeiro

Things are good here. We fell right back into the old neighborhood.
Went to have lunch and the waiter said, -Estava viajando, neh?- He
knew that he hadn't seen us so he figured we must have been
traveling. Everyone remembers us, even the newsstand guy. Very cool.

Gigogas are the big news over the last few days. I had to ask a guy
what that was. This of course meant that I was immediate friends
with everyone in the bar. They all began to tell me the story/tale
all at once. It seems that this aquatic plant, found mostly in
lagoons and rivers, has become overgrown due to lots of ´nutrition´,
shall we say, in the water. This over growth has lead to the development
of sort of a Brazilian sea-going Trifid. When it rains, these plants
are washed out into the sea and come ashore on the beaches. The good
news is that it means job security for beach cleaner folks.

Anyhow, leaving the bar, all my new friends I met 5 minutes ago were
wishing me happy trails. Where else in the world can you have a
converation about Trifids with a bunch of perfect strangers and leave
feeling like you just visited your family? I love this place.

Went to Canarios Friday night. They are now at a building down by the
port area. Something about the rent not being paid in Lapa. I had been
to the building before for a Filhos de Ghandi rehearsal. Cool space
but a little iffy out on the street at 3 or 4 AM. The samba is a little
slow getting started after New Years. The blocos are just now forming
up and calling for submissions of sambas from the composers.

The sambadrome rehearsals are in full swing and have become perhaps
a little too popular. My friend Jorge got stuck in the traffic over
there for 2 hours on Friday. It makes sense. Most people cannot afford
the first world price of a ticket to Carnaval. The open (free)
rehearsals in Sapucai are an opportunity for the locals from the areas
of the schools to show up, see the school parade in the sambadrome and
sing slong. It´s a big scene and very well attended. All the alas,
commissao de frente, porta-bandeira, etc, are represented. There are
no big floats. The baterias strut their stuff as this is their opportunity
to march and play and work their show. These rehearsals happen 2 or 3
times per week and are published on various websites and in the paper.

On the samba de mesa front, there are some cool developments in our
area. There is a new dance studio about one block away where they now have
shows on Sat and Sunday. This week it was Forro on Saturday with a roda
de samba with Teresa Cristina on Sunday. This also is published in the
paper. Travessa Euricles de Matos. 1700 hours. $R15. There is also a
roda on Sunday nights at Severina just around the corner.

Marcos Suzano is doing his workshop at Maracatu Brasil again this year.
Poorly advertized but, somehow, well-attended anyhow. If you´re in Rio
this week, check it out. He moves very slowly and is a good teacher.
Great beginner course. Not sure on price.

In my opinion the best places to eat continue to be the Pe Sujos,
little bars your mother told you to stay away from when you were
little. You have to look around for a clean one. These are the primary
lunch places for workers in the area. They have fixed price meals with
more food than you can possibly eat for about $3 American. Since
the value of the dollar has fallen so much during the reign of King
Shrub, it´s more important than ever to find good off-the-beaten path
eateries.

In the beer department, stay away from places which only serve Choppe.
This is the Brazilian version of draught beer. The stuff is OK but,
compared to my beloved SKOL in the 600ml bottle, it´s really expensive.
SkOL is around $R2,80 at the time of this writing. More than last year but
still in the ballpark.

More on Guaratiba and Moqueca tomorrow.

Off to walk the beach. j

Poets and Brahma

2006-01-08T04:52:00.000-08:00

07Jan 06 Rio de Janeiro

"Erections, Ejacualtions, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness" is an American classic. Garrison Keillor and my long time philosophy buddy David Brock seem to feel that, except for being a sex-crazed, alcoholic lunatic with a foul mouth and bad skin, Bukowski is a lot like ee cummings. As such, they argue, he should probably be required reading in publc high schools across the country. Sort of an "I'll see your intelligent design and raise you a Bukowski" deal.

Anyhow, the title of that book pretty much summarizes the situation here in pre-carnaval Rio. One of the really cool things about this country is that it takes about a month to prepare for and a month to recover from big holidays like Cristmas, New Year's and CARNAVAL. This of course means that nothing of any substance gets done between about December 1st and sometime in mid-March. It's summer, the time of year when every Brazilian with any sense of taste and decency has submitted to fatalism and has placed everything in the hands of Brahma..... the beer, not the God.

Of course the big beer God here in Rio continues to be Skol. I'm happy to report that the "beeronomy index" is still within acceptable parameters. You can still get yourself an ice cold delicious 600 mililiters of brewsky for about a buck. Life is good. Life is very good.

Going to lunch at a fishing village outside of town. Luckily I got up just in time for lunch. j

last day

2005-01-27T16:46:00.000-08:00

27 Jan 2005 Rio de Janeiro

I know you´ll all feel better knowing that your government is hard at work protecting you from Brazilian terrorists. This is the same government which, in an attempt to avoid racial profiling, is often seen strip searching little old ladies trying to get on a Southwest airlines flight to Cleveland or some other well-known terrorist hang out.

It seems that two mid-20´s Brazilian surfers complete with long hair, flip flops and surf boards landed in Miami. The word ´´bomba`´ in portuguese means ´´bomb´´ and it also means ´´pump´´. These two shady characters had a vaccum pump with them which is used to suck the resin onto the core of the board and prevent delamination. They obviously did not realize that they were dealing with a linguistically-challenged tiny minded dumb ass. When they mentioned the liguistic oddity of the word ´´bomba´´, they were immediately sent to jail where they stayed for 3 months. Finally, someone in imigration figured out how to use the dictionary and decided to deport them rather than keep them in jail any longer.
All righty then.
I went to a great small community samba school the other night. It was exactly the kind of scene that I love. Lots of kids, families and a great bateria. Unfortunately, I can´t tell you where I went. Lately, I´ve been catching some serious internet grief for giving away everyone´s favorite off-the-beaten path samba things to do in Rio. Some of the comments have been pretty nasty. It seems that some people want to keep Rio for themselves. I guess that maybe I should let go of trying to be the Rick Steve´s of community samba here.

Consider the following. Over the past two years, I´ve reported on what I thought were the coolest, non-commercial things to do. I´ve only scratched the surface but there´s still lots to choose from. In return, I´ll ask that, if you go to these places, you do so with respect. These people live here all year. They have almost nothing other than human warmth and Carnaval. If you are playing one of the bateria instruments, you may be taking it away from one of them or from a kid who´s trying to learn. Even in the blocos, rest assured that you are not going to be the baddest ass in the bateria. Everyone here can play. Most can play better than you. Trust me. Ask for permission. Move slowly. Be respectful. Samba is tribe. This is applied anthropology.

It´s better to be lucky than good. When crossing the street, be the rabbit. Don´t panic. Never go anywhere without your towel.
Fui, j

I love this place

2005-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

25 Jan

Just walking over here is a treat everyday. The place is full of life. Every block is packed with small businesses of every variety. There are hardware stores, small groceries, bakeries, bars (at least 2 per block. they also serve as lunch counters), veterinarian/pet shop, laundry, book store,news stand and so on. Not one Mc Donald´s or Walmart or Starbuck´s. Heterogeneity is the ticket.

Karma is a bitch. For years all the rich folks in the buildings around the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas have been dumping raw sewage illegally. I guess they thought no one would notice. They were rewarded yesterday when four tons of dead fish floated to the surface. The good news I suppose is that the fish were really easy to catch.
There are still high hopes for Portela. Teresa Cristina is slated to sing the warm up samba and the samba enredo is going fairly well. At their rehearsal on Saturday, the harmonia got off beat from the bateria. Hopefully, they got that kink worked out. I have to say that I´m pulling for them.

One other thing you should definitely try is the cachaça called ´´Magnifica´´. It comes from Minas Gerais, is a little pricey at $R 4 rather than the usual $R 1.50 but definitely worth it. Like good tequila. Tasty.

Political reporting here is more fun than a barrel of those little wrestler monkeys. I´m guessing that you guys don´t get the same reports we get here. As far as I can tell, the news media in the US is all on board with Bush´s plan for this term calling it ´´ambitious´´. Here in the rest of the world the word ´´Hitler´´ keeps poppig up. However, there are some bright spots for the Shrub. It seems that, although 49% of the US and virutally 100% of the rest of the world hates him, the iranians, especially the students, love him. They want him to come to their countryand kill their government. You gotta love that Shrub. Poltics makes for strange bedfellows, huh?

Gotta take a lap around the beach. j

His Xuxaness

2005-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

24 Jan addendum

Our old friend Xuxa has finally made his way into the society column. This is the guy who, last year, threatened to resort to using foam rubber in his drag costume for carnaval. The same guy who hurt himself trying to snap open his his chinese fan and, therefore, declared himself not gay enough to be messing around with fans.

Well, as it turns out, through this friends Thalia and Stephen, Xuxa Bob met and has become friends with Joao Bosco, one of his musical heroes. One of the blocos in Vila Isabel, Segura Para Nao Cair, is honoring João Bosco this year and , as part of the celebration there was a big party at Bosco´s house and then the folks went to the bloco parade in a chartered bus. Simone and Aldir Blanc were there as was one of the musicians who appeared on Carlos Santanas recent album. The party made it to the society page in the paper.

At this point ´´His Xuxaness´´ is insufferable. I hope that I don´t have to dar uma chulapada nele (slap him).

I read the newspaper today. Tons of funny stuff happened. More on that tomorrow. j

samba

2005-01-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

24 JAN I think

The really big ``S`´. Samba. As far as I´m concerned, the local samba scene is the deal. There are tons of blocos and smaller non-commercilized schools all over the place. Everyone in the community participates. Saturday afternoon as we left our local bloco here in Larageiras, there were two others on the streets on the way to Largo do Machado. The streets are alive with samba and it´s way cool.

Never made it to Dona Marta as Canarios had a technical rehearsal in the aterro. It was fun and the bateria was good. Hung out with the directoria before and after. This is my school here. Bambas is my bloco. We´re comfortable and know almost everyone. No need to go anywhere else. Community is what it´s all about.

Samba is like baseball in at least a couple of respects. Try explaining the infield fly rule to someone who didn´t grow up with baseball. Secondly, baseball fans tend to be very loyal. Witness the long suffering Red Sox fans who finally got past the curse of the bambino. My friend Jim who grew up in South Texas and somehow became a Tigers fan. The Portela fans are the same way. This year they hope to get past a 30 year drought set in place by some sort of macumba foul up. When you ask someone what samba school they like, they don´t say '`Portela`´. They say ``Eu so Portela``. ``I am Portela``.

Tournament of Roses, an obvious close allusion to the floats and spectacle.

New Orleans Second line; Suzano identified this as `´the samba of the US``. I tend to agree that there are similarities at least in intent and alegria. Add a few Mardi Gras indians with the elaborate costumes and you approach a samba parade.

Figure skating. the samba competition is similar to figure skating in that there are obligatory parts and moves. Abre alas, comissao de frente, carros alegoricos, baianas, bateria, ala das criancas, velha guarda and so on. Everything has to go perfectly and the samba must be emmotive or you lose points. The winners are often separated from second place by only a gnats whisker. Gnats have very small whiskers.

The only other thing I have to report is the odd phenomemon of what can only be descibed as `´lip wrestling``. You´re just walking down the street and suddenly, on the corner or sidewalk just ahead, a lip wrestling match breaks out. It´s a co-ed thing most of the time.

Today is a day of rest. Tomorrow starts a series of visits to technical rehearsals. I´ll be on the look out for funny stuff. j

the three s´s

2005-01-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

23 Jan 2005

Sex, soccer and samba. I may have to break this up.

Sex is alive and well here in Rio. Sex between consenting adults is considered a healthy part of life and sensuality drips from the walls here. There are used condoms on the street all over the place and that´s probably good news. Political correctness does not seem to exist here. Little stuff send people over the edge in America.(a baseball player with a fast ball velocity higher than his IQ makes a racial slur and it becomes front page news.) These PC dumbasses would be rendered apoplectic here.

Last night st the end of Camarios,about 0330, the samba school selected the Rainha da Bateria, the Queen of the samba school. It was a jiggling wiggling spectacle. A mix of a livestock show and a beauty contest with great music. If you can get past the fact that the women were wearing almost nothing and just look at the talent they have, it is amazing. Whether you like it or not, it´s part of the culture here. I was happy for the winners (Pincess and Queen) It was a very big deal forthem.

Unforutnately, beautiful people and grinding poverty can lead to abuse. Exploitation, euphemistically referred to as `´sexual tourism`´ is getting bigger here. Apparently the europeans have discovered this fact and are chartering planes in here. Exploitation of children and adolescents is also on the rise. The paper recently had a picture of this big muscular German dude with a shaved head and one of those cute little barbed wire tattoos on his bicep. He was chatting up a couple of girls in training bras. The next picture had him kissing one of them. Nothing wrong with that sick fuck that a close encounter with a baseball bat wouldn´t fix.

If you come here to exploit these wonderful people, you´re fucked up. Period. Call me a red neck.

Anyhow, soccer, a nacional passion. Having grown up in west Texas, the very same west Texas they made the movie `´Friday Night Lights`´ about, the concept of playing a game without using yourhands is a little foreign to me. We have these hands!! We should use them. I guarantee that if my dog Meaux had thumbs, he would not be playing ball with his mouth. In fact, if he had thumbs, he wouldn´t be playing ball at all. He´d be in the frig.

Be that as it may, these Brazilians do amazing stuff with their feet, heads, knees, chests, shoulders, etc. They even play volley ball without using their hands. Everywhere you go, people are discussing soccer. They argue passionately about who is the best ``whatever``. I like the game but I can´t play it worth a flip.

And finally, SAMBA. I don´t have enough time right now to go into this but, later, I hope to explain how samba has elements of the tournament of Rose´s parade, New Orleans second line with some Mardi Gras indians, figure skating, and baseball.

Today there´s a technical rehearsal of Canarios in the Aterro do Flamengo. It´ll be our only chance to parade this year. Tonight, I hope to go up the morro of Dona Marta.

Fui, j

LIfe is good

2005-01-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

22 Jan 2005

So much cool stuff has happaned that I really don´t know where to start. This may take more than one message.
One cool thing that keeps happening is lunch. It´s really the centerpiece of the day here. First you wake up late and wander around the house, in your underwear if you´re lucky, until someone gives you a cup of coffee. Once you are with it enough to be able to find your way back home, you head for a walk around the beach. After that, it´s time for lunch. Skip the restaurants and forget about eating on the beach except as a curiosity. Spot a worker and follow him to a Pe Sujo(any one of a million bars). Order the plate of the day and an ice cold beer. It´s like cheeseburger in paradise. Lunch for two with more than you can eat will run about $US 7. You have to find your own Pe Sujo because I won´t tell you where mine is. All you folks from Baja Canada might descend on the place and the next thing you know we´ll all be eating natural chicken, tofu and minced dove assholes with chipotle mangochutney. I just can´t let that happen.

Anyhow, the other cool thing that happens on a daily basis is just walking down the street. A lot of it involves Brazilian dogs. There are lots of them here and most are very well taken care of. I just saw a poodle getting his hair done in the window. He must have taken a fairly dim view of the situation as he was wearing a muzzle which made him look a little like Hannibal Lecter. These folks love their dogs.

Over the past few days the samba has been good. Thursday had Imperio Serrano and Vila Isabel in the Sapucai. They were good but they´re not going to win in my opinion.

Yesterday, after dropping by the local bar da esquina where we have been elected honorary members of the neighborhood, we headed out to my favorite scene which is the Bambas do Catete. This bloco is not famous which probably helps to keep it local. The bateria is all guys from other schools who live in the small favela behind Catete. This is a family scene. We´re watching the children grow up here. Everyone knows us. Last night was the disputa de samba final. There were 3 sambas and everyone was rooting for their favorite. There was all sorts of connfeti (I´m a really bad speller in 4 languages) and hopping around and singing. The composer who won lives in our neighborhood and is part of the turma at the local bar. He is taking me to the Morro of Dona Marta for the rehearsal of Furacao Azul on Sunday. I´ve been there before. It´s kind of a heavy place but the bateria is fantastic and alllocal.

This is the scene I like best here. Samba is at least partly about tribe and the schools made up mostly of folks from the hood are really fun. They´ve grown up together. I feel honored to be able to experience this.

Foods you should try if you´re coming here for the first time. Appologies to those of you who know this stuff.

Frango a passarihno, the perfect food; bife a milanesa, Brazilian chicken fried steak; acaraje, hush puppy on steroids; acai, (there should be a little dittzle on that c but I don´t know how to do it) a dark brown/maroon fruit from up toward the amazon served as sort of a smoothie; beer; agua de coco, ice cold coconut water served right out of the coconut with a straw. they then crack it open for you and you eat the meat; churrasquiho de gato, little chunks of meat grilled over an open flame on just about every street corner. the `´gato`` means `´cat`` so you might want to skip this one; same goes for the cachorro quente AKA hot dog vendors; any of the juices at the juice bars; costela a gaucho, ribs cooked slowly with watercress and potatoes, cheap and effective; apim which is mantioc root cooked many different ways, puree de apim, which gets Xuxa´s vote for the perfect food, is like mashed potatoes on steroids; Manchique restaurant in Copacabana. Churrasco and all you can eat buffetfor about $US 6; feijoada, pick your place as not all are good; did I mention beer?

Today there is chorro na feira, the local bloco ``Laranjada``, Amigos do Catete, Canarios das Larageiras and that´s just my schedule. Xuxa will likely be up in Sta Teresa at Carmelitas. Carnaval is heating up and several blocos are parading today. You just can´t do it all.
It´s time for lunch and then my nap.

Coming soon: Sex, soccer and samba; the bigthree. j

lots of stuff

2005-01-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

20 Jan 2005
It´s been a pretty cool two days here. A couple of days ago it was kind of foggy in the morning. There was fog on the mountains across Guanabara bay from the aterro. The ships were using their fog horns and the frigate birds had come ashore. Sailors say the these birds only come in when there is a storm at sea. They are all over the tropics. Their body is very small and thin with a straight tail. Their wings must represent about 75% of their body weight and are shaped like boomerangs. These babies can float all day. Add about 200 parrots in the coconut palms having a big confab and expo, no one other then me and the birds at the beach. Magic.

I´ve had a couple of firsts occur here. The first first was when I ate something that I shouldn´t have. My stomach rewarded me by making me throw up in the shower. Way bummer. If you ever get a chance do throw up in the shower, skip it.

The other first was last night when I was invited by Xuxa to go out with him and three other gay guys. One was reported to be such a flamer that his nickname is Petula. Needless to say, this sort of stuff makes great copy so I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, two of the guys didn´t show. We still had a great time at Salgueiro. This time of year, the samba is boiling hot. If a member of the bateria misses, he gets cut. The bateria was really cooking, big, tight,fast. I knew about 6 or 8 people and was able to walk along with the bateria. The rehearsal was outside the quadra in a soccer field with a track around the outside. I had my headphones on and my miniddisc in my hand so I think that security must have thought that I was some kind of journalist. I just walked along with different parts of the bateria for about 2 hours. Man you have to experience this!! Indescribable.
Luckily, the rehearsal ended early so we took off toward Sao Clemente. Unfortunately, these guys fell last year so they are now in grupo A. The bateria is, therefore, much smaller and not as impressive as it was last year. That is not to say that it is not good. I knew about 30% of the guys in the bateria and, as soon as they were done hugging me, they gave me a caixa and away we went. I played for about 30 minutes or so and then rotated to someone who had just showed up and had to play in order to keep his card. In fact, I gave my drum to a 10 year old kid who we have watched grow up here in the neighborhood. He´s playing tamborim in Salgueiro and caixa in Sao Clemente. He plays everything but is going to have to grow a little before he´s tall enough to get the surdo off the ground.

These guys play samba with one hand tied behind their backs. There was not one intact stick in the entire bateria. They were all just splinters held together by a samll amount of wood in the middle. It´s amazing how much sound they get out of these beat up drums and pieces of sticks.

The other funny thing that happened was yesterday in the local bar. As I was having a beer with my new friend Seu Juarez (77 years old) I noticed a calender from about 1997 on the wall. It had a picture of the Pope doing that`blessing thing that he does. In big red letters across the top it said, `´God Bless This Bar``. You gotta have priorities. I love this place!!

Hope to lay down some pandeiro tonight in the local roda de samba. Fui, j

Nothing special

2005-01-18T04:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a quiet day. Monday around here is sort fo like Sunday. It´s the traditional day off for Brazilian musicians.

Early in the day we had a Xuxa siting so we invited him for lunch. Afterward we walked around the neighborhood looking at potential apartments to buy. There was a piece in the paper reporting that the CIA did a study of what to expect in the next 15 years. I´m sure that Shrub was not happy to hear that the old CIA thinks that in only 15 years, China and India will be the predominant world powers and the USA will be just another Eurpean style backwater trading mostly with Mexico. Further, Brazil is believed to be among the countries slated to rise to economic power. This means that our money is not going to return to it´s previous value in the long term and the real estate here is only going to become more expensive, unless of course, the Mogadeshu style gunfights and lawlessness of the favelas spreads to the whole city. Anyhow, seems like a good time to explore the real estate market.

Afterward, we went downtown where Xuxa put the hard bargaining on a music store for some surdos and accessories. I went next door to Casa Oliveira where, I´happy to report, they now sell those really cool tamborim baquetas with the tapered sticks and fat ends. Previously, these were only available if you got lucky enough to run into the maker at a samba school rehearsal. The design is very cool and leads to fat little ball at the end of the stick which is very light and really whips into the tamborim. Nice. A little pricey but worth it. Maybe Marko can figure out how to add this feature to his designs.

Afterward we went to the `´Sahara`` which is a huge street shopping area over around Rua Buenos Aires. I think that I´ve previously mentioned that they call street vendors `´camelos``. I think this is why they call this area the sahara. Lot snd lots of camelos. Lots and lots. You can buy everything here. Hang on to your wallet. In fact, leave it at home. Put your money in your sock or something. Anyhow, we went to several stores which specialize in carnaval stuff. They have ready-made costumes including the headress, shoulder pads, feather backdrop, bikini, etc. All you really need to go almost naked and look good doing it. Anyhow, we ordered a headress for our favorite Porta-Bandeira and it should arrive Thursday. Now we have to figure out how to get it home.

Finally got back to the neighborhood. We have been adopted as honorary members of the neighborhood family. We sat in the corner bar having drinks and snacks and.......talking, an art all but lost in America. Seu Juarez is an older guy who was once a banker but who has had literature as a life long passion. He loves Ernest Hemingway. Yesterday he quoted from the Raven by Poe in Portuguese. Very cool. His friend Manuel is an english teacher who specializes in Backgammon which they call `´Gammon``. Very big here. Anyhow, there were several people entering into the coversation and it went on for some time. Very pleasant and way way better than TV. The neighborhood bloco ``A Larajada`´ meets this Saturday.

I can´t believe that we only have 10 days left. j

acaraje and more

2005-01-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

I forgot to talk about some really good news. On Saturdays there is an acaraje stand in our neighborhood. For those of you who don´t know, acaraje is the national food of Bahia. In Rio, it´s kind of hard to find. Think of it as a hush puppy on steroids. They are made of a massa made from black eyed peas and then deep fried in dende (palm oil). They are about the size of a big biscuit with the consistency of corn bread. They cut them open and stuff them with vatapa, caruru and dried shrimp. Add some hot pepper sauce and you got yourself a serious lunch. Throw in one of those waxy brazilian napkins and you´re gonna wear your lunch. The word for it is ``lambuzar``. That´s when you bite something and it explodes all over your face and you love it. Anyhow, I wound up with acarje in my eyebrows. Yum!!

The data are in and, once again, they are not pretty. All is not well in paradise and there is a big stink over the whole thing. It seems that the garota from Ipanema has grown up.....and out.....way out. The New York Times recently had the bad taste to publish a story and a photo of some hippos on the beach in Ipanema. They alleged that there is an obesity epidemic in Brazil. Of course this was just speculation until one of the London tabloids confirmed that the sale of plus sized bikinis is way up in Brazil. OOh... That hurts! I must say that I have noticed that many of the young girls are no longer painfully thin. They tend to have this sexy little pot belly sticking out. For us middle-aged guys who like our women built for comfort rather than speed, this is not such a bad thing.

We went to the E do Pandiero bloco yesterday evening and had a nice time. It´s in the Club Guanabara which is right on Botafogo Bay. This can lead to a stinky situation as the whole area is an open sewer. However, yesterday, there was a nice offshore breeze so there was no smell problem. The bloco is cool with about 30 pandeiros playing with two guitarists and a cavaco player. At one point, one guitarist was playing a very african-sounding ride over a coco song. Very cool. Sort of like the two roots meeting up again. Seu David da Portela showed up at the end and sang a few songs as well. Verynice. Small moon. Corcovado in the background. Beautiful.
I love this place. It has it´s flaws but it is way cool, way beautiful and full of variety. One of the things I like best about it is the abundance of small enterprise. We have over regulated and sued the initiative out of America but it is alive and well here. Every block is full of small businesses of every variety. In our neighborhood, a kid comes by with a bicycle loaded down with home made bread every morning. He honks a little bicycle horn and people go out and buy the bread. In Austin, he´d be taken directly to jail for making too much sense.
People buy and sell whatever they can where everthey can. It´s wonderful. j

I'm not sure what happened

2005-01-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

Man it´s been wild. Friday was pretty sedate until the Suzano class. He gave a review of all the stuff we had studied and then some. He was just spewing forth info and I was right in front with my MD recorder running. I looked at him a couple of times and asked him to do variations and he just cut loose. The guy is immensely cool not to speak of immensely talented. The class rocked except for that same fat moron of who won´t stop playing. I´m no professional but my avice to anyone as a musician is to learn when not to play. If you´re not adding, you´re subtracting.

At the end, everyone got a little certificate and Suzano signed my pandeiro ``To Jacare`´. He actually remembered my name. The dude is really friendly. Goes out of his way to make evryone feel good.

After Suzano´s class I went to Bambas and played till about 1 Am when the cops came. Not sure what that was all about.

Saturday was a beautiful day and the feira on our street was in full swing. Every type of fruit and vegetable you can imagine and then some. All fresh from the farm and cheap. The fruit tastes different here. It´s not perfect. Has some bug bites. Tastes heavenly.

After that, there was `´Choro na Feira`` which is widely held to be the best choro roda in Rio. It happens every Saturday afternoon under a big grove of trees at the end of General Glicerio near Rua das Larangeiras. Fantastic. I said before that samba is not spoken in Austin. The same is not true of Choro. ANy of the crying monkeys could have played in this roda. Our guys in Austin compare very favorably to the guys here. I think that the choro fans here would be very impressed. My advice to Russ and Sergio is that you guys try to turn the lodge meeting into a roda in some outdoor place for summer. I think it would catch on big time.
After that it was time to prepare for Sarurday night. I mostly just lazed around and read for awhile, took and shower and headed out for samba. Dropped by the Amigos in Flamengo and it was pretty lame. So lame in fact the director was glad to see me and hurt when I left to go to Bambas.

At bambas, I had one of those transcendant musical moments. There was this guy about my age from Beija Flor (he had to hug me of course), ALex, the monster from Estacio and Sao Clemente, a third surdo and me. 3 caixas, one third. It was so locked that it sounded like a drum machine but breathing. It went on and on. Fantastic!!!. The quality of the bateria is very high. For some reason, all these great players from the bigger schools live around there and come down to the corner for Saturday night entertainment is they don´t have to go to the quadra.

Anyhow, after that went to Canarios and rocked until about 3 AM. Being in the bateria was like sticking your head in a jet engine. Man was it loud. Last night there seemed to be a lot of drunks around so many folks were playing through the breaks. It gets really tribal with these little balls of guys all getting togther and urging each other on. They forget to look at the director and play through the break. Needlees to say, this close to carnaval, that draws attention you really don´t want to have. One old guy in the directoria, was somehow convinced that I was part of the problem. He came and stood in front of me and watched me play for about a minute. He then smiled and gave me the thumbs up. Guess he decided not to humiliate me. Anyhow, it was really loud and then the Rei Momo and his queen showed up. All hell broke loose as they presented the flag. Conga lines broke out ( a sure sign that there were some gringo tourists present). It got wild. We played for about 2 hours without stopping just going from one samba to another. John Wheat would have been in heaven. Things kept getting louder and wilder until I finally decided that I had had enough fun for one day.

Today we Have rehearsal of the bloco, E do Pandeiro in Botafogo.

Tomorrow I go to the Morro of Vidigal(scene of a recent big gunfight between the police and drug dealers) to visit Davi dos Santos. I saw this kid grow up in Austin and now he lives here, sratches out a living and plays music. Look for his recording on the Brazilian Groove CD by Putamayo records.

Fui, j

follow up

2005-01-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

Just a little follow up on today´s activities. We went to lunch at our favorite pe sujo just off the aterro do Flamengo. We had two beers, guarana, water, grilled chicken, grilled steak,rice beans and salad for $8. If I survive thewalk home, I´ll take a nap.

It seems that the Brazilian government feels that the era of American hegemony is over as it nolonger requires that it´s diplomats speakenglish. They need to be fluent in portuguese,spanish and french but not english.

Finally, just in case you were feeling sorry for yourself today, there was a report in the paper of a guy who left the northeast with his parents and 9 children and went to SP where he stayed two years. He moved to Rio where he had a good job for two years. After being layed off, he´s been on the steets for two years. He currently feels lucky because he found this area on top of an unfinished over pass where no one robs him. Although he sleeps with cars going 80mph past his head on the other side of the wall, He rests comfortably for the first time in a while. Since he´s no longer being robbed, he can collect enough aluminum cans to save enough money to leave Rio. j

Suzano

2005-01-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

The only real thing to report on is the Suzano class. It started off slow but yesterday, as Suzano said, ``O bicho estava pegando``. Man he was giving out information at light speed. We started out with what he calls inverted samba, ie starting on the finger tips instead of the thumb. I had worked this out as a third surdo part with the mutes on one and the up of two miming the left hand pattern on the head. However, Suzano apparently uses this pattern as his primary approach. When he lets loose, it´s serious. Monster is not a strong enough word. The otherthing is that his right hand barely moves. At least 90% of the ride is left hand. He also really emphasizes the platinelas. They have to keep moving and be even in sound.

From inverted samba we went into his trademark rides. He began to show all the funk/back beat stuff as well as the `latin feel`´ tumbao stuff which made him famous. Luckily, I had positioned myself right in front so, even though the morons in the class kept trying to play instead of listen, I was able to hear him and see exactly what he was doing. One other thing I noticed was that he plays a mylar head as well as he does a goat skin. I think that this may be a good way to get your tones up and equalized. The dude is smooth as silk.
After funk we went to reggae and other pop styles. Tonight I think the plan is to review quickly and then he´s going to give a little show with effects including loops and guitar pedal stuff. I swear I´ll have to throw a net of some of the people in the class to keep them quiet. I will definitely have my recorder. Suzano, BTW, cited the Grateful Dead with respect to taping and filming. He encourages it.

Last year I had an epiphany that the traditional caixa de cadencia, as taught to me by Jorge´s son Anderson and others, comes directly from the pandeiro partido alto part which plays: 1 and and 3 4 1 2 3and and where up of two, four and two are slaps. In the caixa ride they are rims with the other notes filled in with the left. There are, of course, many ways to sauce it up with buzzes and so forth just as you would while playing partido alto no pandeiro. This is what gives life to the bateria.

Anyhow, Suzano showed this ride on the pandeiro and stated that it comes from Cabula. So there you go, another piece of the puzzle with regard to the roots of samba. It seems to almost all be based in candomble. I plan to confirm this with Jorge Alabe on Saturday when I go to a churrasco at his house. I also plan to continue my research into the aphrodisiac question. I figure, if anybody knows.....filho de Xango. j

Abbott and Costello have a beer

2005-01-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

13 Jan maybe. Definitely Thursday.

Not that much funny stuff happended yesterday until, after the Suzano class I was headed to a roda de samba to try out some of the new stuff I´ve been learning. I stopped off at one of the hot dog vans on the street for a beer. I asked the wrong guy for the beer and he told me that I now had to share with him. After a brief exchange we agreed and he said ``Falou`` which is a way of saying ``cool`` or `´agreed`` but can also mean `´you said``. I couldn´t resist the opportunity of course so I replied `´falei?`` which means `´I said?`` He looked at me funny and said Nao, falou como `´falou``. To which I replied ``I said what?`` At this point he allowed as to how he had noticed my accent and asked where I was from. I explained that because I am Japonese, it´s very difficult for me to speak potuguese without an accent. At this point he took a moment to study the situation and decided that I must be Italian. I finally identified myself as a Texan who didn´t vote for Bush. This was all he needed. He launched into a full blown political diatribe. Interestingly, the Brazilians I have spoken to feel empathy for the troops and their families. Even the uneducated can apparently separate the American people from the American government (atalent which is obviously absent in arab contries). Bush is not a popular guy here and the word on the street is that America will never recover from 8 years of his policies. The folks here see China as a waiting beast. When they ascend to dominance, they will not be nice about it. The average Brazilian here is light years ahead of the avaerage American is knowledge of world events.

Anyhow, after a couple of beers we exchanged names and the guy invited me to pass by and have a beer when I´m in the neighborhood. When was the last time you had a 30 mintue conversation with a perfect stranger shook hands and called each other brother as you parted? This place is fantastic!!

The other funny thing involved crossing the street. Even after years of coming here, I´m still challenged by crossing the street. Brazilians rarely run across the street. They somehow effortlessly walk out into traffic and only get killed once in a while. It´s miraculous.
I thought that I had it timed perfectly. Just let this giant truck full of exposive gases go by and I´ll duck behind just in front of this motorcyle going about 80. It´ll be great. I´ll look good. Suddenly, the truck put on the brakes and pulled up onto the curb. My curb. My spot on my curb. It was then that I spotted the bicycle. Going the wrong way of course. He was only doing about 20 and had about 6 bottles of water in the front. Remember all those word questions you had to do in math class? Different velocities in different directions? This was it baby. Real life application. I quickly analized the situation and decided that this was no time to be thinking too much. I turned and made a run for it and ducked behind the truck and up onto the curb just as the two pursuers passed. I felt like Daffy Duck with his tail feathers burned off but at least I hadn´t somehow caused the gas tank truck toexplode. Big fun.

It´s beer 30 PM. Gotta run. j

brazilian t-shirts

2005-01-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

12 Jan more or less

One of the amusing things about the third world is the t-shirt in english. Of course, the wearer of the shirt often hasn´t the foggiest idea what the t-shirt says and, I must say, I often don´t understand them exactly either. Yesterday there was a guy waiting for the bus with a t-shirt which said ``Freshness!`´. Another with `´Hard Flip`´ (pronounced rgee fleepee in portuguese) Later I saw a tall beautiful blonde girl swaggering along with `´Enjoy`´ printed across her breasts. I suspect that she may have completely understood that subtle message. Anyhow, this whole t-shirt thing makes for great sport and something to do while you´re just hanging around.

Went down to the `´Camelodromo`´ yesterday with Jorge and Mauricio.You take the metro to Uruguiana and when you exit, you´re in Paraguay. Everything you can imagine has been illegally imported and is sold at bargain prices. If it makes you feel any better, monsters like sony and microsoft are getting ripped off by the millions here. The deal is that a new video game here costs about $R 200. The minimum wage is $R 300. A pirate copy is $R 25. Do the math. The place is huge. They have everything. If you want to take souvenirs such as t-shirts back home, this is a good place to start. It´s easy to get to and away from and almost all merchants take plastic. Very safe but don´t take your wallet or any of the other stuff that draws attention. And remember, if they ask ``Where are you from?``, it´s Japan. Shortens the follow up conversation.

Went to Suzano´s class at 2000. This class is kind of at a bad time as it interferes with my usual musical adventures but it´s definitely worth it. Suzano is really a prince of a guy. Very patient. Likes everyone. Last night was much better in that the school built up a stage and provided microphones. While the morons plinked away on their pandeiros, I was able to stand right beside the stage and really watch what he does. His idea is genious. His playing is virtuoso level. However, the whole thing is really very simple in theory. You just have to put in the time. It´s just a matter of coordination of movement and spending the time (lots and lots of time) making sure that the sounds are all perfect and falling exactly where you want them. There is zero slop in Suzano´s playing. 100% of it is variations of alternating 16th notes but it sounds amazing.
So there you have it!! Now we´re all masters.

But seriously folks...we spent the class going over Coco, Baiao, Ciranda, and Maracatu. Interestingly, Suzano has a real love of funk so he puts a back beat in just about everything. He even puts a back beat in Maracatu which really fills it in. The back beat requires that you start the pattern with your finger tips rather than your thumb because you can only get a slap coming off your palm and onto your fingers. Trust me on this. I can explain it to you better with pencil and paper.There are seven basic tones not counting bends of opens which are done with the left thumb. The slap is done off the finger side of the hand which requires that it come on an upbeat which equires that you start the pattern (the one) with your finger tips. IN summary, practice playing all your rides starting on your finger tips rather than on your thumb. This may be more than you want to know about this.

Anyhow, after the class we met up with some friends at a rodizio de pizza on the LArgo do Machado called Gambino. It´s a little pricey but good if you´re hungry and want to treat yourself. The place has 120 flavors of pizza. Remember the bicycles from the Island of Doctor Moreau from last year? This is the pizza equivalent. They may be violating some kind of natural law by making some of these pizzas. Chicken stroganoff pizza. Bacalhao pizza (salted codfish). Of course they had all the usual suspects as well. They bring the pizza by your table and you eat until you pass out. They drag you over to a little cot and, when you wake up, they bring out the dessert pizza. They have strawberry ice cream and chocolate pizza. If you can imagine it, they can make it. Thought you had me right? Yes!! They even had sushi pizza. I must admit that I found that one a little creepy and chose to skip it.

Gotta take a waddle on the beach to work off some of this pizza. j

samba and beer

2005-01-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

Ok second try at this. One of the charms of the third world is that you get to learn to be patient. Just as I was finishing an hour e-mail, the internet went off and I lost everything. Oh well...

Samba and beer. It doesn´t get any better than this. We woke up early and headed for Xuxa´s in time for a 1300 happy hour and lunch. Thereafter, we headed out with two of his friends to the pagode in the quadra at Portela. Thes two friends came here for a visit about 5 or 6 years ago and haven´t gotten around to leaving yet.

``There´s a cowboy in the jungle and he looks quite out of place with his shrimpskin boots and his cheap cheroots and his skin as white as lace.`` --Jerry Jeff Walker

If I had come here at 25, I´d have been a gonner for sure.

Anyhow we went to Portela and met up with Xuxa´s pack. It was someone´s birthday so everyone was yucking it up. That was the good part. I still feel that, overall, these big events put on by the samba schools are a mess. Overrun with people and expensive. The music is only ok. You should go to a big rehearsal just for the experience. You might love it. For me, the best music is at small pagodes and the technical rehearsals. Fewer people, better prices, killer samba (you can stand right there beside the bateria) and the hours are better which means transportation is cheaper and more available.

After Portela we went to my favorite scene in Rio, the Bambas do Catete. It´s a simple street corner with middle class to poor folks celebrating life and culture through samba. THE BEST!!! Everyone started huggin us immediatelyand even those who didn´t know us began to hug us figuring that we must be important or something. No one wanted to miss out on some hugging. The calor humnano here in Brazil really defies discription. Wonderful. We celebrated by....playing some samba. The bateria, about 90% of whom I know by name was rocking and filled with guys from other schools. Good stuff.

About 2330 we headed out for Lapa and the Canarios rehearsal. It hadn´t started yet to we sat at the Bar Cosmopolita and had......frango a passarinho. Sitting under the stars of the southern hemisphere on a balmy summer night surrounded by music and life. The buildings in Lapa are killer. They must be from the 30´s or so and have beautiful facades with statues and such. They´re a little run down but, as the area is enjoying a resurgence, I have hope that someone will buy them and fix them up. In America they´d just tear them down and put in a strip mall. Wé´ll see.

About 2400, the samba started with a vengence. I sprinted in there so as not to miss a moment. The diretoria recognized me, hugged me and told me to make myself at home. Very very cool. I settled into the bateria, once again, the tallest and whitest guy by several degrees. The bateria was full of young cats playing the fool out of their instruments. At first, no one wanted to stand beside the gringo. In case all hell broke loose, they didn´t want to be part of it. By this time, ~I´m used to this so I just hunkered down and played my heart out. After about an hour, I was one of the guys. Soon thereafter, the crew from Bambas showed up and even the ones I hadn´t knownuntil about 2 hours earlier all seemed happy to see me and were giving me the thumbs up. This place is great.

The bateria of Canarios das Larageiras is way better this year. They did well in there division last year and have chance to ascend to Sapucai this year if they do well again. They´ve packed the bateria with good players and great directors. They are very serious and don´t allow any drunks. They take instuments away from folks who don´t know how to play. It´s close to carnaval and this is serious. Just like the big schools. A big improvement over last year. I feel very lucky to be a part of this. Lucky lucky lucky. It´s always better to be lucky than good.
The samba was loud tight and hot. Great young players and some of us old guys rocking steady. There were only two short breaks between 2400 and 0200. No beer. Only water. Very unusual but necessary. At 0200 or so , the porta bandeira and mestre sala came out and the samba got even hotter. We played at 145 BPM as hard as we could until 0330 with no break. Everyone was wet with sweat and nearly dead but gritting their teeth and hanging in. The only time you could rest was when they would call and call and resonse. It would last about 15 seconds and back in. You just hung on waiting for that 15 second rest to come back around in the samba. Killer killer killer!!! If you are into popular samba culture and want to play, these local organizations are the deal.

There was a break at 0330 more or less. They were going to play more in about 30 minutes. However, by that time, my right hand was so swollen that I could barely grip my stick so I decided that it´d be best to save some for another day.

It´s official. There are monkeys in the neighborhood. They were sighted cruising along in the trees out back. They´re the little ones with tight little faces and little tufts of white hair poking out of their little ears. It makes them look like they have little wrestling helments on. Little tiny wrestler monkeys.

Off to find some cool stuff to do. Fui, j

day two

2005-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

8 Jan 2005

Yesterday was a great day. We took a long walk to the aterro do Flamengo, took a lap and then went to our very favorite Pe Sujo for lunch. Just as everywhere here in Rio, the people in the little place immediately remembered us and treated us like royalty. Grilled beasts, rice, beans and salad for $R 7.

Hung out in the afternoon and then went to Jorge and Jaqueline´s house for a long talk. A very long talk. I mean really long. Like 4 hours. We hads to catch up. So anyhow, we went out at midnight 30 to see if we could scare up someaction. Ran into some of the old crowd from Bambas do Catete and Canarios das Larageiras. Of course samba broke out and we sat at a bar till 2am singing the new sambas de enredo and working out the bossas. Turned into a party when peoplewe didn´t even know showed up and started singing along. One big family.
Today we are meeting up with Xuxa to go to a pagode in the quadra of Portela. All the old guard on stage singing sambas while the Baianas serve feijoada. Tonight we have Bambas do Cateteat 8 followed by Canarios from 2400 till who knows. ~I´ll be the tall white guy playing caixa. Really tall. Really white.

Anyhow, this whole napkins thing. Have I already whined about this? As the guy said to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, I have just one word to say to you....Plastics. Well, I have just onew ord word to say to you.....Napkins. This countryneeds a good napkin in the worst way. There are two types here. One is made of wax paper and the other is the self destructing type. The former is like a cruelty joke. As it is made of wax, and has no absorbant qualities whatsoever, you tend to chase the food around your face with it. I suppose there is some logic to it. It must be designed to spread the food out into a thinner layer which doesn´t stand out as much. The second type is in some ways crueler. You innocently put it to your face and, particularly if you have facial hair, it explodes and spreads itself around. You wind up looking like you just went through a locally heavy snow shower and have to go to the bathroom to get it off.
You could be the Micheal Dell of napkins here inBrazil. The nakins magnate as it were. Just an idea.

Tomorrow should be really tasty. 10 hours ofsamba always produce some good material. I planto hit the aphrodisiac thing hard today. Fui, j

Jacare no Rio

2005-01-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

7 Jan 2005

It´s me again. The guy who reads the newspaper over your shoulder and says,`´Don´t turn the page. I'm not done yet.`` --Lyle Lovett

Anyhow, Jacare here reporting from the streets of the cidade maravilhosa. Arrived with no problem on 5 Jan. The bad news is that our bags didn´t. After a quick shopping trip to the local cheap clothing store, we hit the streets. I was naked but I had great new flip flops so all was good. WE went to an old haunt and ordered the perfect food...frango a passarinho. Little anatomically incorrect unnatural chicken (there are no``natural chickens here`. they only have the ones that peck bateries and eat lizards but they taste good. ) parts fried to a golden brown with about apound of garlic and sprinkled with a pinch of parsley. Add the beer food group and you´re good to go. Primal. It´s like the old hunter-gathererdays when homo sapiens were young and wild chickens roamed the earth.

Here´s a travel tip which I have to re-learn every few years: Never go to the third world without a change of clothes and a toothbrush in your carry on.

The beeronomy report is positive. Despite Shrub´s attempts to single handedly bankrupt the US economy, beer is still only about a buck. When the real was 4 per dollar, lunch was just over a buck. Now it´s about $3. Can´t complain but I still do, mostly at Bushy Boy. Oh well.

The bags arrived last night and we hooked up with Xuxa and went to the CCC to see Teresa Cristina, arguably, the best samba singer in Rio at this time. Great show in a room made for about100 and filled with about 400 adoring, singing fans. It was about 200 degrees in there so we got a free steam bath out of the deal. Since I don´t even know the words to songs in english, I couldn´t sing along. However I could sing along on all the percussion phrasing. As I´ve said before, samba is a language. If you have spent time studying with JOrge or in samba camp or inRio, you speak the language. Certain things make sense. Others don´t. Samba is not spoken in Austin. Sorry but that´s the way it is.

ANYHOW, we were out with a bunch of XUXA´s friends and I saw it as an opportunity to further my research into Brazilian aphrodisiacs. I asked Xuxa´s boyfriend about it and he immediately identified Xuxa as an aphrodisiac. I need to rethink my methodology. This topic is bigger (nopun intended) than I thought. More on that later.

I also have a word or two to say about napkins but that also can wait.

Tonight we´re off to Bambas do Catete to samba the night away with all our old buds from the neighborhood. Samba and culture is on the street corner. The stuff on TV is for show. j

Brazil Journal

2004-12-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

We're headed for Brazil next Tuesday and I plan to continue my musings about daily life on the streets of Rio through the eyes of a gringo sambista. I'm in contact with all the usual suspects including my gay friend Xuxa so the wheels are greezed for some really juicy stuff. My first edition will feature an initial report on my research into Brazilian aphrodisiacs and Brazilian Mad Dog 20/20.