Funky

The first new song is called Pente and the second is called Rebolation. The first is a example of contemporary Brazillian Funky which is str8 rapping over a beat. Nothing to crazy but def fun to dance to. When I first got here they were surprised that I could dance so well to it...pretty much the same movements as to hip hop so it wasnt so difficult. The song is talkin about love, sex and infedelity-funky is a sexual movment-the actual word Pente means a pack of bullets. I dont understand why it is called this, in fact nobody understands why it is called this. It is like a pacakge of sex and agreession over a song. And you dance. Yea

The second is called Rebolation. This is THE song of the summer. It has Bahian roots and it is very very very carnivalesque. Those of you who have experienced carnival in other countries should recognize the vibe. The word "rebolation" is just like shaking, moving your body around....thats pretty much the whole song. Im not saying the music isnt profound...just that its dance music. Every genre has its importance. I asked them how you dance to this and the response was, you just kinda move around. Easy enough. Can you samba to this?? btw, samba update: im learning....

The third is one of my favs, Cançao de Terra by Zelia Barboaa. A very old song that means "Song of the Land" It talks about the normal lives of the poor, death and poverty and the cycle. Im getting into Zelia, my favorite song of hers was this one called Cicatriz, but I couldnt find it on the link.

This week we visited a project called VidaVerde. I am in love with the creativity of its founder, a man named Joao. Basically, it is a form of econegocios(like green business)-they are a bank that accepts donations of foods from donors and sells food in its own tiny supermarket. The eco tradeoff works like this: people from the community bring in bottles or cans or frying oil(to be used for diesel) and deposit in the lot of VidaVerde. The person is then paid by the kilo in a made up currency that you can only use to buy food products in this supermarket. You have the option to cash in, but people here tend to be more socially conscious and keep the money in the community by buying from this supermarket. Once a week the city comes to pick up the trash and the cycle is restarted every week. You would be surprised at how many kilos of trash people carry in. This one dude came in a horse drawn carriage. Nutz. But I think its a great idea, it really kepps people ecologically conscious.

One of the founders was a boy of 19 years. He rolled in on his bike with some raybans and I figured he was someone to know, lol. After talking for a while, he let me know about a few student movements around the area and offered to give me a tour of the region. A couple of his causes are fighting AIDs, the environment of course and the black movement in espiritu santo. Black civil rights here is understood very differently. After slavery, there was a group of runaway slaves who escaped into the interior of brasil and formed these kilombos. Unlike the native american tribes of the amazon, kilombos are open to visitor and are alive with african traditions. The fight here is to expand the land of these people. Cant tell you how excited I was to find out about this, Ill keep you updated on the struggle.