Some of the fascinating faces in the Carnaval crowd
This group was hot, hot, hot! Totally percussion heavy, with about 60,000 percussionists on top of the trio, and participants sporting Afrobrazilian designs in face and body paint. In the next picture, you can see what the end of the bloco rope is like. The guys at the ends had the hardest jobs by far, since they were the keepers of the slack. Woo! I thought I was suado at the time. I’d hate to see my little rubber band arms try to perform that job.
The next group to come by was Cocobambu, the bloco that Daniel, Patricia, Pedro Peral, and Christian Nytun were in. Carol provided this picture of them in their shirts (surely made of that quick-dry fabric that is so popular in Brazil. Just looking at them makes my nipples itchy.)
Notice that they’re standing in the entrance to the underground garage at Bahia Flats. I’m sure they went down the elevator, flashed the sign to the jovial guards, and were released into the crowd with the same amount of love that a mother would give her first-day kindergartner.
The group commandeering the Cocobambu trio was Banda Eva, who was as unfamiliar to me as most of the groups were at the time. I knew Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben, Carlinhos Brown, and Caetano Veloso from my library. But out of the whole Carnaval roster, I didn’t have a clue about 95% of the entertainers.
Not anymore. Not after the massive amount of Carnaval music I’ve listened to since returning home. It’s like a happy pill for humanity, and my treatise will come later. But this is how I know what I know now. Post-trip study–the best kind.
Banda Eva is the group that spawned Ivete Sangalo, who was to come by later. Carol had again mentioned that we were going to see some really famous acts. Once again I nodded, knowing they’d be great, but not having any idea HOW great, or HOW famous.
This next picture shows the end of Timbalada and the beginning of Cocobambu. The cool thing about being in a bloco is that you can hop into the parade any time you feel like it. All you need is a cross-street to do it in. Otherwise, you’d never make it in from the sidewalk.
The picture above shows Cocobambu on the run. When that giant trio behind a crowd of several thousand starts to move, the crowd starts to move, too. At least they’d BETTER move. And when it happens, it’s quite a sight. The crush of people all holding beer, or their other favorite beverage, are propelled forward at a remarkable speed, and their beverage of choice ultimately shoots into the air. When seen from the terrace, it looks like just a bunch of shenanigans. When seen from inside the crowd as we did later, you find out that it happens because of all the sudden movement. It’s like the popping of a big party pimple.
Below are Daniel, Patricia, and Christian in the bloco. No telling where Pedro is. I don’t know who the guy is in front of Christian, but when I first put the identifying rings on the picture, they crossed in front of his face. I figured he’s a friend of P, D and C’s, so I took the rings off. It’ll be, like, really ironic if he’s frienemies with P,D and C.
Here’s Banda Eva and their trio. The lead singer, Saulo, was excellent, as was the entire group. Another thing I liked about them was, it reminded me of playing in Chevy 6 for some reason. Saulo with his capri pants and t-shirt, and the whole band gave off the same vibe. They were like a great party band for a gigantic party.
Their bloco was comprised of a much younger constituency than most of the others, and I figured that Banda Eva was one of the reasons. The tickets were cheaper than some of the other blocos, too. Better for a younger budget? Regardless, this is still an interesting, rare case where the centerpiece of the band (Ivete Sangalo) launches a massive solo career, but the spawning group (Banda Eva) remains as popular as ever. In addition, it doesn’t appear that there is anything but love between former front woman and band.
Oh the zany shenanigans! Look in the picture above, right under sponsor logo LG, and see the two people that spotted me and signaled to the camera! I love it when that happens. I mean, these people were having a blast, and once again, NO VOMIT! In the next trio of pictures, you’ll see some clever gang-dancing girls. Notice the rope and security people watching them. How the hell they could do this kind of thing for 6 to 8, even 10 hours, was beyond me, but Patricia had told us how everybody starts really hitting the gym about 6 months before Carnaval because: (a) they wanted to look hot; and (b) they wanted to be able to do the whole parade route. It was obviously a thing with a lot of people to do so. Daniel and Patricia did, I know.
The fever was in the air all right. After the spawn had passed by, we went upstairs to liquor up again, enjoying the interactions with folks in the lobby and elevator. It was universal alegria, that’s all I can say. We sat in the condo for a while to cool off, listened to the entertainment from our balcony, then boa-noite‘d our way back down to the terrace. I was ready to sit down still, and so was Jean. I was sweating my ass off, of course, but was bubbling over with the music.
Suddenly, a young Brazilian woman walked by, grabbed my hand and pulled me up to dance. I don’t know if she thought I was gonna flake out and sit down, but I didn’t. The music was killing me, so I danced with her for a pretty long time. Long enough for her to figure I was either hip or on crystal meth, because she stopped dancing first, patted me on the shoulder and disappeared as fast as she came in. I’ll bet she thought she was gonna play a big gag on the big fat tourist, and ended up having to dance with him! HAR! I wonder if she looked at my teeth and figured I was NOT a meth user.
Robo, meanwhile, had recorded the event on his new video camera, and if I figure out the technology, I’ll post his video. I have no shame. Fat people are very fluid. It’s kind of fun to watch. Like a lava lamp.
After the girl zoomed off, we sat on the bench long enough for me to recover from temporary heatstroke after shimmying my gigantic self crazy with the coffee-and-cream-colored lady. Oh yeah, it’s a beautiful thing to watch. Shudder. We headed back to the front of the terrace to watch more of the crowd. There was no bad place to be anywhere in Salvador as far as hearing the music, but seeing the unbridled human behavior is always a great video to go with a fantastic soundtrack.
It seems there was a slight altercation in the bloco. Some interloper tried to enter without the proper quick-dry identification. The second layer of security had quashed his attempt pretty quickly, but the military police were Joãos and Joanitas on the spot, and they carted the hooligan off promptly.
Look at this blast of color at the end of Cocobambu’s bloco! I’m sure the t-shirts are heavily coveted by the Salvadorans, and are surely some sort of status symbol to have. There are probably those who have shirts from all the recent Carnavals. Just another argument in favor of the democratic notion of Salvador Carnaval. The workers may be working, but they are a vital part, and I think they realize this and feel that way themselves. The only way to totally take the elitism out of it would be to banish the blocos, or either subsidize every single Salvadoran to join one, even if it were at the city’s expense. That’s the crazy kind of thing we’d do in America.
