The storm before the calm

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Wow, I’ve been so busy recently that there’s been no time for blogging! Can you believe I actually worked last weekend? Saturday and Sunday? Work has been crazy recently – lots of early starts and late finishes. Thankfully, after 6 months solid work, I have some holiday coming up. During these last few frantic days at work, my mantra has been “This time next week I’ll be in Bahia, this time next week I’ll be in Bahia…”.

Bahia, in Brazil’s northeast, is known for being a particularly laid back place. A friend told me that last time he was there, he was staying in a pousada (like a guest house or nice hostel). At around midday he found the chef snoozing in a hammock. The chef stayed awake just long enough to listen to the lunch order and then turned over and went back to sleep! Apparently the food showed up around 4.30pm!

As if in pre-penance for the relaxing times to come, the pace of work has been building to a crescendo. And as if to mirror this tempestuous ‘storm before the calm’, the weather in Rio has gone a bit crazy too. This was the view outside my window this morning:

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Novos Baianos

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Brazilian music has been on the Eat Rio menu quite a bit recently – we’ve charted the highs of João Gilberto and Bossa Nova and we plumbed the lows of a plagiarising Rod Stewart, legs akimbo. In one of the comments I was even accused of having good taste in music! Well, I feel that I have a real ace left up my sleeve when it comes to Brazilian music recommendations.

There is a very select group of albums that I mentally file under the label “Solid Gold”. You know, no dud tracks – what you might call perfect albums. This list includes Blondie’s Parallel Lines, Neil Young’s After The Goldrush, Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Van Morrison’s Moondance (you’ll let me know if this starts to get a little self-indulgent won’t you?).

Well, since coming to Brazil I have a new album to add to this list of mine. It is called Acabou Chorare (which means ‘No More Crying’) and is the work of a group called Novos Baianos. What can I say about this album? It really is one of my favourite albums of all time – a beautiful piece of work.

Novos Baianos

Novos Baianos – the founding members (from left to right) Luiz Galvão, Baby Consuelo, Paulinho Boca de Cantor and Moraes Moreira.

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A Rio Caipirinha

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Another post about Caipirinhas? Yeah, what of it?! Just a quick one today as I’ve been working all day would you believe? But as I toiled away, here’s what I was dreaming off:

caipirinha

Is it just me, or does this thing look about a metre tall? A trick of the light or something I suppose – this is in fact just a normal, smallish plastic cup. The drink inside was lovely, regardless of its humble container…

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strawberries and star fruit

The Fruit Evangelist

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Over the last few years I have become aware of a weird new use of an existing word: Evangelist. In Brazil of all countries it would be hard to avoid the traditional, religious sense of the word. But have you come across Technology evangelists? There are Microsoft Evangelists, Photoshop Evangelists, you name it. As far as I can tell, they are employees who spend time making training videos, running forums and generally singing the praises (hence the name presumably) of their chosen product/manufacturer.

Personally I wouldn’t much like to get stuck in a lift with any type of evangelist, though (as we’re about to see), perhaps I should remember what they say about throwing stones in glass houses, because not so long ago I found myself doing some evangelising of my own.

strawberries morangos

Luscious, juicy, Brazilian morangos (strawberries).

 

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João and Maria Ninguém

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Today I’m going to pick up from where I left off in the last post with João Gilberto’s seminal album Chega de Saudade. One of the songs on the album is a light, lilting number titled Maria Ninguém (“ninguém” is Portuguese for nobody/no one). If you don’t know the song, here is a link (be warned, it can get stuck in your head for days…).

As you may recall, I was listening to this music back in London, meaning my usual Brazilian cultural encyclopedia (AKA Mrs Eat Rio) was not around. It was only when I got back to Brazil that I discovered that Maria Ninguém has a husband named João and that this couple are actually figures of speech!

 

Tito Na Rua Zé Ninguém Hoodrat

This is the work of Alberto Serrano, AKA Tito Na Rua. We’ll come back to this at the end…

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