Monday, January 26, 2009

It's all about friendship

Little did I imagine that, 7 years ago, when I befriended a 19 year brazilian guy in Portland who was in a work exchange program that my life was going to take such a different turn. What is so great about it is that it didn't take any plotting, or trying to get to know someone who could help me in the future; it was just friendship....pure and simple. Sure I helped Bruno out that first time he was in portland, but he was very independent, so there wasn't that much I could help him with. He's a wonderful funny person and it was a blast to hang out with him and give him a lift somewhere once in a while. It was after he left and was back in brazil I found out that he's a very special kind of person from very special family. When I told him that I was going to go to brazil for the 3rd time, he immediately said, 'come stay with my family. I told them you were good to me in the US, so we want to open our house to you.' I went, (and probably stayed way too long...3 months) and started really learning about brazil, it's culture and people. The family lives in Padre Miguel, the place I'd heard about from another brazilian, my
good friend and godfather of the Lions of Batucada, Jorge Alabê. He lived there and I understood it to be the home of Mocidade, the only samba school I'd heard of up to then. One day I was driving Bruno somewhere, and he casually mentioned that he was one of the leaders of the tamborim section of Mocidade, which Jorge had always said were the best in Rio. I was super impressed and asked him all kinds of questions like, "how easy is it for americans to go play with them?" I remember him telling me that it's known as a 'closed' school. People come up from Estrelinha da Mocidade (the mirins, the children samba school; most of the big schools have them) and eventually make it into the adult version, and he said someone has to die before there's an opening! I thought that made sense and let it go. I wasn't going to try to use him to get in, or even to go rehearse with them...I just let it go.
Ok...ahead to when I get off the plane in Rio and Bruno asks if I'm tired, and says he has a surprise for me. It turned out to be quite a surprise; I went with him to Mocidade's technical rehearsal at the quadra that night thinking that was the surprise....oh no, he brings me a chocalho and asks if I want to play. Before I could freak out too much, I found myself playing chocalho with Mocidade! I was on top of the world! We played for a while, warming up and then we stopped. I was in the back, where Mocidade puts chocalhos for technical rehearsals, but soon realized that way up front people were having to play by one by one while everyone listened. I heard nervous conversation that I didn't understand, until I heard the word 'teste'...gulp! I knew what that meant! Since they had to go through 200 or so people before they got to me, I had plenty of time to think about it...I sweated so much that sweat was rolling down my whole body from my underarms and dripping off...no kidding! They finally got to me. I'd been repeating over and over to myself that I know how to play chocalho so just play, what else could I do? I wasn't prepared for EVERYONE turning around to see the gringa friend of Bruno test for chocalho. They all had smiles on their faces, but still! I played and people were so very kind and congratulated me immediately afterward....WHEW! Now that I know more, I'm sure I wasn't terrible, but I'm also pretty sure I wasn't as great as they acted. That moment was a turning point; from there I rehearsed with them, went to the invitation only party for the bateria, got to parade on Sapucai for a technical rehearsal, and since people got to know that I could play, was asked to join grupos de acesso to fill out their chocalho sections and have gotten to parade on Sapucai 3 times for carnaval. That stuff is all great, but more importantly, I have made some dear friends....I'm a richer person now. Words aren't really sufficient, but I just want to say that Bruno Moraes is a very special person and I'm lucky he's my friend.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Mocidade, Guerreira!

(Actually, the title is from last years samba...I like it better than this years'!) Went to Mocidade with Sue, John, Bruno, his fiancee, his family, and his and her extended family. Mocidade sounded great, John and I played on the stage until the wee hours, I had my first 'hotchee dogee' of the trip and then we all had greasy but good coxinhas before hitting the sack at 6am. I only slept for 4 hours, but I expected that. I find it very difficult to sleep in. It was a little bit like old times...me playing chocalho in the row in front of the tamborins, in front of me are my friends playing caixa or surdo: Bruno, Hudson (Alex' brother), Vincent, a great french sambista, who is now 'carioca' and plays tamborim for all the top schools. Vincent used to be part of Sambatuc, a marvelous french samba school that used to and maybe still has as it's puxador, Jean-Christophe, who put a very good dvd on how to play samba (http://www.le-salon-de-musique.com/samba.htm . To make it even better, Renato, Bruno's brother, was also playing caixa. I've never seen him on the palco (stage) playing samba..he's great at that too! (no surprise). John was there ripping on caixa in a little semi circle with these amazing ritmistas and totally holding his own....

Friday, January 23, 2009

Bloco Tamo Junto in Folia


Hi gang, here's a foto from last saturday when I went to the first rehearsal for Tamo Junto. They asked me to play chocalho with them! Most of them are also mocidade or ex, so they know me already. Buda, the tall guy in the foto is a director here and was a long time surdo player for mocidade.
I just looked on their site to see when the next rehearsal is and I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like the rehearsals are going to be the same night as Unidos de Padre Miguel. What a drag! I really liked the vibe here. I'd heard from David, Kathleen and Jacare how blocos were so different from escolas de samba, and now I see it. Way more relaxed, into having fun, very open...Oh well, I hope I'm wrong about the rehearsal days.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Engarrafamentão, mother of all bottlenecks

I was caught in the biggest bottleneck ever yesterday afternoon...or night....both, I guess! I saw that it was going to rain monday, but no biggie, life goes on, I thought. I'll just take my umbrella to Botafogo for my samba dance class then kill 5 hours, first in Copacabana at my favorite por kilo (restaurant where you pay by the pound). Side note: brazilians normally don't throw away food on their plates; even in their homes, they clean the plate. I've often thought about the difference between their por kilo restaurants and our all you can eat restaurants in the US....elegant versus piggy/gross. We still revel in that 'abundance forever' way of thinking. If we had to pay for it by the pound, I'm sure there would be less wasted....also, if the food was prepared with more care, that might make a difference!
Back to the engarrafamento story: I was then going to go passista platform shoe window shopping at 'Beth's' for the SambaGata dancers in Saara (area in centro where you can buy anything you need or don't need at good to great prices), then walk over for my firstclass/rehearsal for Fina Batucada, the all women's percussion group that I'd been trying to get to since I arrived in Rio. Alas, yet again it was not to be.
It had been raining steadily all day, and I got the feeling that maybe the ride back could be delayed because Avenida Brasil, the highway that I use to get home, might be flooded in spots as it was the other day I was caught in centro in the rain. As I wanted to go to the Mocidade wednesday tech. rehearsal at 9, I thought maybe I should head home at 4. Went to catch an Expresso, a bus that will make stops until it hits the huge Rodovaria (bus station to everywhere), then thankfully speeds on in it's own bus lane on Avenida Brasil, as opposed to a Parada, which makes MAAANY stops). I was pleasantly surprised; I got a seat...wooohooo! the day was going well! I'd had a great dance class, my new dance shoes worked out well; I only slid a little once and got a seat for the 45 minute to 1 hour bus ride home!
The one thing I would be thankful for in the next five hours is that I had a seat. We sat on that bus barely moving for the next 4 hours, crawled for a half an hour and sped like the devil for the other half an hour. Cariocas are some of the most vocal people on the earth, but only when, in their opinions, something could or should be done about a situation. When it can't, they are resigned and some are subdued. Others were resigned and made new friends. I got to read a newspaper from beginning to end that someone was passing around. It was the longest and shortest bus ride in a funny way. I got home, dried off, but cold and sick of sitting on a bus. It was still raining and I didn't want to go back out there yet. Mocidade will be there next week.

I also found out at home that the whole city was locked up in the traffic jam, not just us 'suburbanos' (people who live in the suburbio; way out there...as I like to call it, the 'real brazil'...I'm sorry, I'm prejudiced...don't listen to me!). Indeed, Avenida Brasil was flooded and at one (long) point, no cars were on the highway...it was empty except for lots of water. Thousands upon thousands of people use Ave. Brasil daily. At least there was a reason! When I arrived home, Regina (Bruno and Renato's mom,) had made pea soup and homemade bread! A taste of the US! The bread was perfect and still warm. I had some for dessert too....warm whole wheat bread with butter and honey.
It was a good day.

Monday, January 19, 2009

I hung out with amaro!

I forgot to mention
All you pagode gang out there, I had lunch at Amaro's and hung out on the beach with him. He misses us all a lot, but also loves Rio....it kind of sounds like he won't be coming back soon. You never know though! He looks good and is waiting to hear from some publication about his work so that he can go do the last step. He's kind of in limbo (albeit a limbo that is located in Lapa, bars in Gavea and Ipanema beach!) poor devil! I'm going to go to Lapa with Sue and John to see his show on the 30th.

singin' in the rain

I know that many other americans think the way I do about the sound of english....almost every other language sounds sexier or at least more exotic than ours. After being here for a little over a week, I stopped kind of shuddering when I'd catch myself saying something in portuguese with an american accent (or maybe just shuddered internally), but I still didn't like it at all. I don't like being ashamed of what I am, but next to portuguese, english is pretty flat and close mouthed (?). Well, I now I need not be ashamed! When we were leaving sapucai and it was still raining hard on us, Bruno started 'Singing in the Rain', Michelle joined in and Mafalda tried to. I continued singing the parts they didn't know and they were all smiles. Bruno said that it was so cool to hear that song in an american accent, because it just isn't the same otherwise. Well! I guess it's all how you look at it.

Sapucai done the brazilian way

ps. sapucaí is what cariocas call the sambodromo

Whatta blast I had last night!
My brazilian brother Bruno, who is now living in Botafogo, is far away from Padre Miguel where I'm staying with his family, the wonderful Moraes, and is really busy: moving into a new condominium, setting up the new place, having it painted and repaired, working full time AND going to night classes for his MBA. So, needless to say, I hadn't really been able to hang out with him a lot. He got the new place together last week, so yesterday he and his fiancee Michelle picked me up and took me to Botafogo to swim and have a steam bath. I joked that we could have just gone outside in Bangu (note: padre miguel/bangu, where I live, is known as the 'hell' (temperature wise) of Rio) for the steam bath. It was fun though and the guys had a nice shave....do guys do that in the US too? I had a great time swimming by myself before they arrived...just floating around feeling quite content and cooled off for a change.
We were killing time before we went to Sapucai, that kind of being the point of the evening. I'd gone by myself once and once with bruno before to watch him in Grande Rio, but I was by myself, really, the second time as well because he was playing tamborim. This third time, with Bruno, Michelle and Mafalda...which is a nick name, I confess I don't know his real name even though I've known him quite a while...was by far the best. The schools were Vila Isabel and Salgueiro. i was able to record some of vila isabel, but a huge downpour started before Salgueiro that wouldn't give up and I didn't want to wreck my recorder. Mafalda gallantly took his shirt off so that I could cover my backpack with it to protect the recorder (it worked!). I wasn't close enough to bruno to hear his commentary on, well, everything....he is truly a walking encyclopedia on samba schools, and everything connected with them. He's very humble about it, but it is the truth. We drank lots of beer. I normally don't drink much, but I felt really safe...Bruno knows all the tricks; he's been going to Sapucai since he was a teeny little baby. They kept filling my beer cup...don't bother telling a brazilian that you don't want to drink anymore. they'll fill it up anyway. I gave in and, standing there in the rain, soaking wet, loving everyone and everything was just what I needed. I'd been a little down due to the heat and slight stomach troubles. I'm better now. I tested my stomach out yesterday with the beer and a frango plok....it was soooo good! I'm not exactly sure what it was. I know what frango is, (chicken) so it must have been the plok that sent it over the edge! Yummy! Gostoso!

I went to mocidade saturday night by myself but ended up seeing old faces and got to go up to the stage for the first part of the evening....right up front! Since Bruno is out of mocidade now, it usually takes some scheming, but it was as smooth as butter, probably because I wasn't expecting it!
The bateria was missing some (almost all) their key people due to a show on the same night which used all the best players. The poor guy on the primeiro was either behind or ahead, and then the huge guy that replaced him was overly enthusiastic and ended up breaking the head....
There were mostly new passistas, but a few of the women and quite a few of the men were excellent. The men passistas from mocidade are usually great and they didn't disappoint...wow!



comments are welcome!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

First paragraph is a repeat of an email. Second is new stuff

it's been super hot here. it was kind of funny, because I just thought that maybe my blood thickened in portland because the heat here was so hard to take. I checked online tonight and 38C is friggin 100.4 F ! no wonder! It was 89.6 at 9:30 am today. I saw on someones facebook that the sun was out...good for you guys. I went to a favela (Vila Vintem) around here to rehearse for a samba school last night and there were three young guys standing there with huge guns...kind of weird, this happy samba music and those kids standing there with their guns and these deadly serious expressions. still, they reminded me of little kids playing gangster. It's supposed to be really dangerous to walk around in this particular favela, but I think that most people just thought it was a little bit amusing that I'd do it. Last night was a little slim as far as bateria, but boy, with 8 chocalhos, 5 strong tamborim players, 8 caixas and about 6 surdos, it was dynamic anyway. Those tamborins were so great, it felt like my chocalho was playing itself. we played around two hours straight, but I'm not sore in the least. I don't know what it is... I do know that the way samba enredos are set up, the chocalhos play to the point of kind of wishing it would stop, but only to that point, then we get a nice long break, then play in short spurts, then the long one again, and repeat repeat repeat the whole cycle. we practiced turning corners, which is a nice thing to know how to do if you're parading.


I went to hear mocidade's technical rehearsal at the quadra...things have changed a lot. Many of the strong players left a few years ago due to 'misunderstandings' with the directorate. These musicians are still 'mocidade', and may come back once there's a different mestre, some different directors and especially different president, but it's been a few years and many are already entrenched in other schools. I have feeling they will come back; it's a lot more convenient to play in your own neighborhood! I 'm going to go again saturday to check it out because some of the great players who are still with mocidade will be there.
I'm going to Unidos do Padre Miguel, (where ex-Mocidade ritmistas go to play) to rehearse on friday. It's kind of like a job; I'd wanted to go to Sapucai to see Imperio Serrano rehearse, but I have to learn breaks and sign in at Unidos....so that's where I'll be, I guess....I could have a worse life, huh? heheh

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

More fun, Less sleep

I wonder if I'll fall to the floor asleep in mid-sentence, or maybe when I'm crossing the street. I really have to get a normal amount of sleep some night. I'm not trying to say that my life is one big carnaval of thrills a minute. I just can't sleep at night and then I wake up early. Yes, there was the night the devil dog next door kept me up all night...or last night when Renato brought all the members of his samba pagode group back to his house and they were up until dawn and then one of them decided that 8am is a great time to play the drum set a little bit. Ya gotta forgive them though...they'd opened for Arlindo Cruz at a great theater with great sound in Rio (Teatro Rival), and they're all 18 or younger. I don't know...hopefully I'll be near something soft, preferably a bed, when body takes over and decides I need to sleep.
I went to said show last night and was very happy to be able to sing along to many of the songs...thanks Jorge, brazil camp and the samba pagode gang at Skavones! I was especially happy that I knew 'nao deixa a samba morrer' . What a blast to sing it with a lot of brazilians!
I'll write more later. I have to lie in bed and not sleep for quite a while. Good Night!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Blisters and Bus rides

I forgot about the first few days here and blisters from chinelos! (flip flops) How could I have forgotten? I started out on one of my many long walking trips (this time to buy shampoo, toothpaste and a chip for my phone) to the calçadão of Bangu (big sidewalk shopping area) that has this covered area in the middle that protects you from the rain, but more importantly, has a
very heavenly light and refreshing mist that shoots out intermittently....brazilians know how to live, don't they?
Anyway, back to the blisters...I forgot that if you aren't used to wearing chinelos and are walking a lot....my purpose had been to get personal hygiene products, but now I had to find chinelos that fit and didn't have a strap in the same spot as my blisters (and they had to be cheap because I'd have to buy different colors). I got one pair that I thought would fit the bill, but they ended up being worse than the first pair; I then had to go look for another pair that didn't touch the blisters that this second pair made...you get the picture. I did have a good time meeting new shop people though. I'm the only gringa for miles, so when I use my ice breaker, " Sou americana, não falo português muito bem...", they get this smile on their face and I get the feeling that I made their day. I know I have that same smile and willingness to help when a foreigner asks me for help in portland. That's another thing, in Bangu, I've never minded telling people I'm from the US. Out here, people tend to be very protective of me.

I'd also forgotten about the engarrafamentos (bottle necks that go on forever). I wanted to go to Mangueira's ensaio tecnico, and I was supposed to meet Bruno and another good friend there. I kind of slipped into the relaxed way of life here and left the house a little late. Not a good idea, as there was a not only the huge traffic tie-up, but a car had overturned shortly after my stop.
Once we finally approached the avenida, we pulled the cord for the busdriver to stop...no way. this dude took us way past sapucaí, which elicited at first, mild, "hey stop!", "where are you taking us" to my favorite new swear phrase, "this 'puto do motorista' is crazy". Not exactly grammatical, but we all got the idea. We were all instant friends as we walked the few long blocks back to the avenue, agreeing with each other as to the dastardly-ness of the bus driver (I actually just looked very put out and shook my head in disbelief with them. My portuguese isn't that good yet). Anyway, I arrived super late, which was a bummer not only was I was supposed to meet my friend who does sound on the avenue, but I had a mangueira shirt from Renato who played guitar on Mangueira's carro de som last year that would have granted me entrance to the pista (the actual avenue, not the stands). Needless to say, I arrived very late (they hadn't started, but had already closed the avenue off) and I couldn't call my sound guy friend Hudson and fix it because my stupid new chip in my phone wasn't activated yet. At least I could stay close to the bateria and record their esquentimento (warm-up), and record their caixa feel. By the way, 99% play it hand over hand and they blast out those first two hits 1 E , as well as & A of 2; they're almost equal. Anyway, I need to read the manual for my zoom, because I didn't have it at the right setting and it was waaaay too loud. sucks. The other thing is that it was so overloaded with sound, that the little meter wasn't moving and I thought I hadn't recorded anything, in fact when I checked, it didn't show that track. Kind of bummed, I went to sit in the stands with the rest of the cattle and heard a couple of great breaks which I wished I could've recorded...I didn't try to remember because I was worried about my zoom, already planning on emailing Sue and John and asking them to bring me a new one. When I got home, I checked again, took the batteries out and put them back in, and voilá, the track was there, I'll try to fix it, because it is kind of muddled and hurts your ears.
Ok, enough for today, I've got to take a shower, it's starting to heat up here and I'm sweating already. It's 11am my time 5am your time.
beijos

Friday, January 9, 2009

Who is Arlindo Cruz Anyway?

Maybe some of you are wondering why I was so impressed by my little brazilian brother Renato and what he's been up to. Here's a little wiki and Pauline info on Arlindo Cruz, one of my idols!

Arlindo Cruz (b. September 14, 1958, birth name Arlindo Domingos da Cruz Filho) is a Brazilian musician, composer and singer, working in the genre of samba and pagode. Arlindo took part in the most important formation of Grupo Fundo de Quintal, and is considered by many Brazilians to be the most important figures in samba pagode today.
Biography
At the age of seven, Arlindo was given his first musical instrument, the cavaquinho, by his father (Arlindão), a friend and partner of Candeia with whom he had founded the Mensageiros do Samba group. From 7 to 12 years, Arlindo already played by ear, learning chord voicings from his brother Acyr Marques guitar playing. At 12, he went on to study classical guitar for 2 years with the Flor do Méier institution. About that time he started working professionally as a musician, in rodas de samba with various artists, especially Candeia who he considers to be his musical godfather. With Candeia he recorded a simple compact and an LP called `Roda de Samba', playing cavaquinho.With Jorge Aragão leaving Grupo Fundo de Quintal, Arlindo was invited to join the group, an invitation which he accepted happily, dedicating himself during 12 years of success. Arlindo played the banjo cavaquinho in the group and was one of the lead voices and songwriters, along with singer/songwriter Sombrinha, who played cavaquinho and guitar. Arlindo Cruz has over 450 songs recorded by various artists, including Zeca, Beth Carvalho, Almir Guineto and Maria Rita. He later joined his old partner Sombrinha in a quite successful partnership, Arlindo Cruz & Sombrinha, which lasted until ca. 2005. Today Arlindo Cruz proceeds in solo career, which, after his hit Madureira, is hot.

Hit the ground running. Arlindo Cruz, my brazilian family and Samba Pagode

went out last night with Renato and his mom to see renato's samba pagode group Bambas de Berço play but first went to arlindo's cruz' house to hang out before the gig...amazing! Arlindo said he'd take me to imperio serrano with him....he'd asked me my favorite school and I said mocidade so he gave me a hard time, of course, because he's staunchly imperio serrano. His wife, though, loved it because she was a porta bandeira for mocidade for years back in the day. I told him I liked imperio as my second favorite because my last name is serrano (it is the truth! I wasn't just trying to get on his good side). I was hanging out at his house because his son arlindinho, is one of the singers and banjo player for Bambas de Berço. they're great, made up of famous guys sons; it's really opened doors for them, but they have the talent to back it up. Arlindo got up on stage and sang with them last night....heavenly! other convidados: Tony Garrido, and then Andrezinho of mocidade, ex-grupo Molejo also Mestre Andre's son. what a blast....we left around 3am. I was so proud of my irmãozinho Renato! I'd only had 4 hours of sleep since tuesday night, so slept like a log last night!