Carnaval

Took a bit but I wanted to make sure the video was good to go... So I guess I'll start off by explaining what Carnaval is. Carnaval is the South American celebration for Mardi Gras. But, this is the land down south, you don't just have one crazy night, you get an entire week, and in my city specifically, you get two weeks. Here's how it happened to me: Every since I'd arrived in Brazil, people aways talked about Carnaval and how the entire country completely shuts down for one week to party. Being the naive American that I was, I figured you'd go to the club three or four times that week and there was like a concert or something on Fat Tuesday. Heh, to put it simply, I've never been wronger in my life! So it's about two and a half weeks before Carnaval when it seems like the general ambience of the city was just growing in anticipation. You could smell it in the air, see it people's faces, hear premature fireworks from the ones who couldn't wait any longer. I remember my first night seeing Carnaval. I was sitting at home, working on the computer, it was around probably 11-12 at night and I decided that I wanted some espresso to keep me awake because I was working on some project. So I went to the only place in the city that might have coffee. I leave my house, the city is empty, it's very quite. As I approach the cafe however, I could hear the sound of music and people yelling growing. Normally, I wouldn't think twice about this, in São João on the weekends, it's always like that, it's the downtown of the city. But tonight, something was different. It wasn't until I had my coffee in hand and was watching this parade of people with different instruments pacing by that: "Wait a second, today's Tuesday" Carnaval has started! Two days later, turns out I could no longer procrastinate the festivities, Carnaval was now knocking on my front door. There were maybe 2000 people dancing, drinking, laughing, yelling, up and down my street. So a few friends of mine and I drank on our balcony for a few hours enjoying the music and commotion that the street down below was bringing. Every once in a while, we would go down into the sea of people to grab something eat or the talk to people. I thought to myself that night, doesn't this "week of Carnaval" start in two days? And so that's how it went, everyday a different place, a different party. Halfway through the week, a friend of mine from the States came to stay with me to partake in the festivities. To be honest, he was a real pain in the ass! He would wake up maybe around 10 in the morning with a beer in hand to go start parting! There were, what's called a "Block party", What these were were just giant gathering of thousands of people going crazy in different places around town. So party from 11-3 at one, take a quick one hour break for food and sleep and then 4-9, next party, each one getting progressively routyer than the one before it. then at around 11 in the middle of downtown, start the "escolas de Samba" which I now know first hand is just a hell of a lot of people dressing up as extravagantly as possible, dancing samba, in a parade-esc form down main street. If you ever got board of any of these parties or escolas or block parties, there was also a 24 hour party on the other side of the downtown area, which of course you'd always end up at in between all the other parties. Hmm, I think my definition of party has changed since I lived here, let me define for you what a party here is. It is not 50 people in a house, it is not 100 people in a club, and it is not 2000 people at a concert, no, it is 2000-8000 people dancing and drinking wherever they feel like it. There are stands selling B-B-Qed meat, beer, caipirinha, shots straight from the bottle, hamburgers, lights that flash, whatever you can dream of having at a party! And so yes, This was the life style for one-one and a half weeks. Now as I am very human like most of us, this can be very tasking on the body. That is why I decided to create a "Post-Carnaval recovery week". Hence the reason I'm not writing this sooner. After a diet of eggs, bread, beer, and hard alcohol on 5 to 6 hour maximum amount of sleep for a week, I needed to take it easy; Susan and I watched the Harry Potter series, two movies a day, three days in a row. I slept about 10-12 hours a day and now I am fine! Alright, well, enough boring stuff, onto the video!!!!!!





This was shot by Jose (American friend), Susan and I.
Music: Desabafo by Marcelo D2
Cast: THE ENTIRE CITY!!! (...and lots of people from other parts of the state.)