Só Alegria

The parade is raging on the TV in the background and I'm preparing to head down to the Temple of Samba, the Sambódromo, ticket in hand.

"'What I would advise you to do,' Ana said, 'is forget about the note-taking. Stop trying to write down what happens. If you don't give in to the spirit of carnival, if you don't let it overwhelm you, you'll never understand what it's like, so how will you be able to explain it to others? If you have the experience, you won't forget a minute of it. Every detail will stay clear in your head forever.'"
--Alma Guillermoprieto, Samba

I had lunch with a friend in the suburb of Duque de Caxias on Tuesday, partisans to the escola of Grande Rio (Greater Rio). Our waiter at the food court (yes, shopping mall food courts have waiters for some reason) was wearing a Grande Rio shirt -- maybe he'll be out performing on the parade grounds tonight -- and every time he came over to our table he beamed a huge smile and announced, "Só alegria! (Only joy!)"

Créu Créu Créu

Samba aside, I'm still keeping my ears peeled for funk in my scant time here. It's always been hard for me to keep track of "popular" songs, given how much they share samples and lyrics or remix each other. But Diplo didn't lie, "Dança do Créu" is a real phenomenon in the mundo funk carioca right now. It's blaring on cell phones, written out on t-shirts and shorts (that's a mannequin, FYI, I'm not that crude of a photographer), and even a bus-load of 2Bros kids that we took to a park for a field day this afternoon we're singing it in unison on the bus (and one of the girls was wearing a créu tank top).

What's it all about? Well, a dance, first of all, "simple" but of "5 speeds." This has been the most popular CreuTube video of it, even garnering some press coverage (Port.):

As for the key word in the otherwise straightforward lyrics, "créu," the MC claims it was just some gibberish his son made up and he ran with it. Now the guy, formerly Sérgio Costa, is "MC Créu," which sounds like a one-hit wonder kind of career move to me, but so be it.

MC Créu - Dança do Créu

Créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu créu . . .

all the way into Carnaval. Créuval?