Eat Rio Blog - Page 53 of 106

Photo Post: Tomato vs Mushroom and the harbinger of death

06/02/2013/14 Comments/in Musings

In case you haven’t worked it out, ‘Photo Post’ is my way of saying “I haven’t really prepared a long narrative, but here are a couple of pictures that you may (or may not!) find interesting”. Today I’m going to show you a couple of curiosities that both appeared very suddenly in the last 24 hours.

I planted some tomato seeds a few weeks ago and was very happy to see a nice healthy seedling appear:

This was yesterday. My healthy, happy tomato seedling sits contentedly in a pot of its own.

It has rained a lot over the last month and everything is kind of damp and soggy. Today I woke up to find that my tomato plant has some competition!

Video post: How to samba

05/02/2013/6 Comments/in Art and culture

Do you know how to samba? You should not be surprised to know that this clueless and somewhat awkward gringo doesn’t have a clue, so you can calm down if you thought I was was going to show you a video of me giving it a try.

Contrary to popular opinion, not all Brazilians are passistas (expert samba dancers) either. In fact I’ve seen a few Brazilian bloggers who have posted the following:

I find this message comforting. If not all Brazilians know how to samba then it seems perfectly acceptable that I don’t have a clue either.

However, I have just spent a few minutes checking out some instructional videos and it turns out it may not be completely impossible. Take a look at this clear demonstration:

Carnival Starts

04/02/2013/2 Comments/in Art and culture

Carnival, for me, has officially started! I know I’m a bit behind on this (pre-carnival blocos have been running for a few weeks now), but this weekend I made up for lost time by visiting two!

On Saturday I ventured over to the lovely Praia Vermelha, just next to the cable car that takes you to the top of Pão de Açúcar. It was a nice little bloco – nothing too crazy and the scenery was gorgeous.

Just back from the beach itself, there is a large open area – perfect for carnival parading.

On Sunday I decided to go a little further afield for a much larger bloco – Timoneiros da Viola in the the North Zone neighbourhood of Madureira. I went to the same pre-carnival bloco last year and it was great!

Apparently the organisers had made a slight miscalculation when hiring the carnival truck – it was too high for some of the cables that stretched across the route that the bloco was meant to take (do they really deserve to be called “organisers” if they make a mistake like that?). Anyway, that didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits (the ‘dampening’ came later…)

Photo Post: Departures and Arrivals

02/02/2013/11 Comments/in Musings

Today I thought I’d try a new format which I’m calling Photo Post – not an original title, but as we say in Britain, it does exactly what it says on the tin. More photo, less text.

I woke up this morning at 6am, fully clothed on the sofa. Urgh. I was about to drag myself to the bedroom and grab another few hours sleep when I looked out the window. Wow! Sunrise was in full effect so I grabbed my camera.

As I looked out over Guanabara Bay, I saw a huge cruise ship coming into port. I’m not a huge fan of cruises (I’ve never been on one and don’t have any desire to go), but I thought that it must have been an incredible way to see Rio for the first time. The captain honked the ship’s fog horn for a good 15 seconds, probably trying to make sure that all his passengers woke up and looked out of their windows.

I continued snapping and caught this plane taking off. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave Rio for good, but I pictured everyone on this plane telling themselves “I’m definitely coming back here!”:

Response Marchinha: Leave Zezé’s big hair in peace!

01/02/2013/2 Comments/in Art and culture

Don’t you just love Response Songs? You know, someone writes a song asking “Why don’t you love me?” and then someone else writes a song which says “Because you’re boring and selfish!”.

Well I’ve just discovered a response song I had to tell you about. Remember I recently wrote about the classic carnaval marchinha Cabeleira de Zezé? It’s a super catchy song dating back to the early 1960s – it’s a much-loved song, but the lyrics left me wondering if I should really be singing it. An ‘unconventional’ guy named Zezé, is singled out for his unusually big hair. Various lines of the song seem to suggest that the guy might be this or that, but the crowd’s participation (shouting BICHA!) sets the tone of the song (the suggestion is that the guy is gay). The final line of the song is “Cut his hair!”

Well, the Eat Rio reader consensus was that this isn’t some homophobic bully song, but rather a reflection of the times in which it was composed. I was (and am) happy to accept that, but it seems that one group of people feel that it is time to come to poor Zezé’s defence!

This is A.B.R.A. Pre-Ca. In case you’re wondering, this stands for Amigos Bandidos Residentes no Amor Pré-Carnaval. These guys started writing carnival music in 2011 and they now play at blocos, discos and clubs.