Sunday 10 January 2010

Rio is not breathing today...

I must have noticed it last night at about 4am - not a breath of air is passing through Rio de Janeiro today. It's all pre-carnival happiness here. People eat a lot of meat. I went to buy a bikini and disovered that they come in 2 sizes - carioca and gringo. One means you belong and so you show your bottom, and the other means you will take your bikini back wherever it is you came from and after all is said and done, your bottom will remain a lighter shade than the rest of you. I'm finding it pretty curious that for all the wild sensuality for which Brazil is famous, it is frowned upon here to go topless... I still haven't quite figured out how to reconcile these things... perhaps I'm missing a Catholic background?
Meanwhile I'm co-writing some songs here with lovely musicians and eating fruit that has no name in translation... like saudade, which also has no direct translation. I'm sorry if this entry is a bit short and scattered... I myself am a bit short and scattered today. I'm traveling without a computer, because they are hot item for thieves here in Brazil, and so keeping my blog promise is challenging. But I made it to the internet point here in Copacabana - Barry Manilow doesn´t know what he's talking about by the way. However it´s interesting what a song can do for a place. "The girl from Ipanema" means the beach is very crowded with tourists, kind of like Notting Hill. I reflected that in the english version of the song, its the girl "from" Ipanema... which technically means she could have been walking on the beach in Brighton when dear Tom Jobim spotted her, or am I totally off here? Either way, I'm off to Recife tomorrow for some voodoo and forro... I wonder if they're topless up there?...

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