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Chau, Carnaval
27/02/2012 14:38 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
Now that the last blocos have petered out, I guess we can all reset the Carnaval countdown clocks and accept that we’re midway through Lent. On the bus uptown on Ash Wednesday, I was looking for signs that some sort of air of responsibility might have descended on Rio once more. Would people be hanging their heads, squinting hungover and repentant against the sun? Would everyone still be glittery? But things looked disappointingly normal. A few more people than usual on the beach, maybe; there was still confetti in the cracks in the cobblestones despite the street sweepers’ best efforts; and I spotted one feathered hat stuck impressively high in a tree. Apart from that, business as usual. Some people on the beach, others jogging around the Lagoa, people wearing sundresses and shorts and tank tops or sweating in suits like they do any sun-drunk business day of the week. — Leia o post completo.
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The secret of carnaval
24/02/2012 15:34 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
Keep your pants on, everyone, I went to blocos besides Carmelitas and did have plenty of fun. And I'm not just saying that. After having Carnaval'd for nearly a week, now, I feel myself qualified to make sweeping pronouncements about it. Aren't you excited? First things first. The recipe for a good bloco, in my opinion, is almost insultingly simple: good music and people who want to enjoy it. — Leia o post completo.
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The greek and the fairy
23/02/2012 09:50 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
There’s nothing quite like the solitude of being the only person on the bus wearing a costume.
I’ll just fess up now – on Friday, that was me. If you happened to be an upright carioca commuter on your way to Glória that morning, you were faced with the eternal Carnaval question: how to react. Do you stare? Do you comment? Do you look into the middle distance? — Leia o post completo.
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Why are we pushing, again?
22/02/2012 19:58 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
I know, I know, they warned me not to go to the blocos alone. And I wasn’t; I thought I’d meet up with some friends midway through the Carmelitas. It’s Santa Teresa, all narrow little streets, and a traditional bloco to boot! How bad could it be, anyway?
Very, very bad, is the answer. — Leia o post completo.
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Purpurin
17/02/2012 12:15 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
After one single ball, it’s become clear that Carnaval is going to have grave, long-lasting repercussions for my life. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The plan was to come back to Rio for a fun week and then go back to studying like nothing ever happened. But now it is the next day, I’ve taken a shower, changed clothes, had breakfast, and I am still glittery. This glitter will never, ever come off. I’m going to study in Argentina and I’ll still be glittery. I’m going to do thesis research and I’ll still be glittery. I’m going to graduate from Princeton and I’ll still be glittery. I’ll have to explain why I’m glittery to prospective employers. I will be glittery at my wedding. I will be buried glittery. And all this because I’d never heard the word purpurina. — Leia o post completo.
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O samba e o tango
15/02/2012 16:44 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
How do I feel about Carnaval? For a long time I thought of it the way I thought about prom. It’s all you see in the movies and books and season finales; it’s supposed to be the high point of the year, something you’ll remember forever. Personally, I kind of resented prom’s symbolic hegemony. Why should a high-school dance, that most odious of events, become the defining event of my secondary-school experience? They couldn’t make me go. But, on the other hand, how could I not go? — Leia o post completo.
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Carnaval with Training Wheels
13/02/2012 17:02 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
Seeing as this is my first Carnaval, I did decide to start small. Literally, small. With children, I mean. I dragged myself out of bed bright and early the next day to go over to Laranjeiras for the Gigantes da Lira, a bloco that’s managed to keep itself small and kid-friendly by scheduling itself at 9 a.m. on the Sunday before Carnaval. But when I woke up – with exactly the same jolt that I used to on Christmas morning – I realized that it was raining. “Raining on my first Carnaval!” I moaned as I staggered into the kitchen. I was told to suck it up, in effect, and consequently put myself on the bus to Cosme Velho. — Leia o post completo.
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Saudade is a Bitch
03/01/2012 14:16 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeauxI was sprawled on my bed on my first night back in the States, catching up with my best friend, when it slipped out. I clapped my hand to my mouth, hoping he hadn’t registered what I’d just said. But my expression must have been of the utmost guilt. Within a second, he figured it out, and looked very offended indeed. I begged forgiveness with my eyes, but it was too late. — Leia o post completo.
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Louco, sim, louco
15/12/2011 17:51 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
All right, so my letter was a failure. I can’t say I was really expecting anything different; by the time the announcement that João Gilberto had canceled the tour finally came, I could only laugh. I’d been expecting it for so long that, at this stage of the game, having to go to São Paulo and back on Sunday would have been both highly unexpected and inconvenient. — Leia o post completo.
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Porque é Schumann, meu filho
13/12/2011 18:11 | Autor: Flora Thomson-DeVeaux
“Ah, I thought I was paranoid, getting here at 2:30,” I said to the woman in front of me as I got in line on the theatre steps.
“So did I,” she said, contemplating the couple dozen people ahead of her. A small crowd of paranoiacs was already forming. Fans of the virtuosic pianist Nelson Freire, that is, lined up an hour and a half before the doors were set to open in order to get a seat for his free Sunday recital. 90 minutes of tedium ensue as the full complement of paranoiacs arrive and is subsequently supplemented by a few hundred latecomers, snaking around the block and down Rio Branco. — Leia o post completo.
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