Rio de Janeiro, the River of January.  This city is the star of Brazil, the home of the largest party on earth: Carnival, and the birthplace of Bossa Nova.  It is certainly one of the most picturesque places I've been, but that isn't to say most well maintained.  In many ways it reminds me of a lot of the Asian cities I've been in, with huge fancy malls just minutes from run down slums (called favelas here).  But it is a beautiful city in its way. 

The picture to the left is the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado mountain.  From the site you can see almost all the city stretched out around you.  The day I went there I was lucky, as just a few minutes after I left the rain started.  The rain didn't stop for eight days.  Even the locals thought this was unusual.  On the upside to that, it made the Lindy workshop that I taught here a good deal cooler than it would have been in the air-conditionerless studio space that we had for the classes.

This is my workshop gang to the right.  The swing dancers in Rio are not a huge group, but they are wonderful warm people and getting to be quite good dancers.  I managed to get a lot of good things in in the class, working with technique and really sinking into my specialty - Musicality.  I think a lot of the dancers came away with something.  It seemed like it from their dancing afterwards.  I hope it keeps up.  Unfortunately, there are not a lot of chances to do social dance in Rio and this will be a big hindrance towards their improvement here, certainly not lack of drive and passion, or lack of talent, just lack of opportunity.

Something else I've been able to do a lot of here is music.  Music is everywhere in Brazil, most of it Samba or Carioca Funk or some other local flavor music, but Santi (my host) managed to track down some really interesting opportunities.  Pictured to the left is a night at a place called the Maze, which is a Jazz bar/hostel nestled deep in one of the favelas.  On this night it was supposed to be a big jazz jam but the rain had knocked out the power, this made it hard for the electric piano and electric guitar to work, but fortunately saxophones don't need electricity so we kept on playing.  This photo was taken quite late in the night so most of the people are already gone, but despite the rain and lack of power there had been quite a lot of people there before.  The guitarist, Wolf, is from Germany but has lived here in Rio for something like nine years and put together the band there.

This one is a blues/rock band that plays in an Irish pub called Shenanigans in Ipanema.  A bit more of an upscale venue than the Maze, but fun in its own way.  I played with these guys on a few tunes, but their set seemed to be more pop rock than Rhythm and Blues, so I didn't play that much.  It was still fun, and different.  More importantly was the party that we had at the place as a lot of the local Lindy Hoppers showed up to drink and socialize. Oh yeah, and Chris Dalby too, who I met in Beijing but lives in Rio (for now).

So after more than a week of nonstop rain, the sun came out.  I finally made it to the beach, so here is a picture of the famous Ipanema beach.  As you can see, the clouds are still quite ominous, but there was sun coming from the other direction...trust me.

In Brazil they do this thing which they call "Grabbing the Crocodile" which is to stand in the surf and when a wave comes, dive into the face of the wave.  This is quite fun as the waves here have a quite turbulent break and if they catch you you get tossed around like a ragdoll for a while until the water calms.  I did this a bunch.  It was a blast. 

On Saturday the 12th I had an opportunity to accomplish one of the objectives I had for coming to Rio, and that was to visit one of the youth orchestras here.  These projects I can't call famous because it was actually really hard to track them down, but what essentially happens here is they collect and teach music to underprivileged children.  I went to one such project called Projeto Acorde and met some of the teachers and children there.  They are really fantastic people.  The kid immediately to my left is named Nathan, and he is one of the better Violin players I have met, child or adult, and he has just been playing for four years.  I hope that in the future I can come back here and spend more time with these projects as they are something that I really want to do myself in the States post-education and after I've settled back down for a while.

Now, to talk about food.  Brazilian food is terrible.  Not disgusting terrible, fried terrible.  Almost everything here is deep fried (even bananas).  I do not understand how Brazilians are not the most overweight people on the planet.  Not only is everything fried, but the portions are huge.  Santi and I order a meal for one person, and can't finish the thing between the two of us!  I never thought I'd be saying this, but can a guy get some vegetables for once?  There is a conspicuous lack of green on every plate.  I think I ate more vegetables in one day of staying with my parents in California than I have in the entire two weeks I've been in Rio.  That said, the terribly fatty over fried meat platters are fabulously tasty.  That and fruit is in abundance.  It isn't quite the "almost free" that it is in Vietnam, but it isn't too expensive (everything else is because of the terrible exchange rate) and there is a produce store on every block so it is easy to get fresh fruit, including some of my favorites: papaya, guava, and passionfruit.

I'll soon head off to Iguacu falls at the Argentinian border.  More from there...

South of the Equator

I am now south of the equator for the first time in my life.  I was up watching my plane pass the invisible line with some excitement.  I landed in Rio after being in an airport or an airplane for 31 hours, and I was very glad to get out.  My first experience with Brazil was some of the famous Brazilian kindness.  I had bought a SIM card for my phone to try and give a call to my host Santi, and find out which neighborhood his home was.  There was a message in Portuguese which I didn't understand, so I asked a woman from my flight who I knew spoke English to help me sort it out.  Apparently the credit that came with the phone was only good for phones on the same network, so I needed to get some credit to call other networks.  The woman (her name is Barbara) asked where I was going, and I told her the address, and it turned out that it was on her way and that her parents were picking her up in a few minutes and that they could give me a ride to where I was staying.  It was totally unnecessary for her to make this offer to a total stranger, but it was a stroke of good fortune for me.  So, I got a ride with Barbara and her American friend Erin, and safely arrived at Santi's house (which turns out to be in Laranjeiras neighborhood).  Santi is super welcoming and had lots of delicious fresh fruit available for my arrival.  I love fruit.  I have showered, and slept, and it is 6:30am here and I'm ready to go!

Big Update!

This will be a sort of condensed update, as it is a lot of things and a long time since I've posted.  I took the train from Kiev to Budapest.  The ride is more than 24 hours.  Fortunately there was a singular power outlet on the train, out in the hall, but no one else seemed to be interested in using it, so I had plenty of time to charge my computer to watch movies and such, so the time passed quickly.  One interesting thing about this ride is that they change the wheels of the train at the border, because the old Soviet countries used a different width track so they couldn't be invaded by train.  This is a process that takes quite some time (perhaps 6 hours) and involves them lifting the train with you still in it, and then dropping (literally) the car on the new set of wheels, which is a bit jarring at 3am.  Passport control is pretty evil too, because the only thing they do is come in at 2:30am and say one word "Passport" and hold out their hand.  You hand over your passport, and hope that you get it back after a few hours.  At least Ukraine isn't Russia.  They are a bit more understanding about people not really understanding what is going on.

 

This is Budapest. It is an old regal city.  It also is quite run down in many places.  Pictured here is the Parliament building, which is not run down, but well restored.  Not everything is so carefully managed.

Hungarian food is good.  It is "spicy" for Europe, which means that you can taste that the spice.  It still isn't spicy, no matter what they say.

Went to the dance there, it was nice.  More boogie-woogie dancers than Lindy Hop, but a few decent Lindy Hoppers. 

After the dance, I went up to the castle and stopped to hear some Balkan music on the way.  Balkan music is really cool, and one band featured these sax players that had amazing tonguing skills. 

After Budapest I went to Ljubljana in Slovenia.  This was a 9 hour train ride, with 3 transfers and not a lot of instruction from the conductors, which made it a bit chaotic as everyone was trying to figure out what to do every time the train stopped.  Fortunately, the Slovenians speak English, including the train conductors, so it really just meant stopping one and asking what the heck was going on.

I arrived at 9:45 at night and went straight to the dance they hold there Tuesday nights.  It was an outdoor dance, and the weather was perfect.  I arrived, changed out of my traveling clothes, and got to dancing, until about 2am.  It was great.  Lots of great Lindy Hoppers there in Ljubljana.

I stayed in a little apartment there provided by Suzana, a dancer, and it was fantastic.  Just perfect for me traveling in and staying a week or so.  Little kitchen, nice clean bathroom, and great markets nearby.  I ended up buying a lot of peaches from a guy from Kosovo, who didn't speak any English at all, but we got by with sign language and the fact that apparently people from Kosovo love Americans.

The dancers of Ljubljana like to visit a small bar called the Green Rabbit where they have absinthe parties.  Absinthe was a new experience for me, but it really just made my tongue numb more than anything else.  No little green fairies floating around for me.  Still, it was nice to sit and hang out with the people there.

Of course, I did the mandatory sightseeing, but Ljubljana is so small that I jokingly referred to it as the "Slovenian Capital Village."  You can walk through the whole think in about half an hour.  That being said, it is a gorgeous town, reminding me a lot of a small version of Stockholm.  Pictured here is the famous Dragon bridge, which I have to admit is one of the coolest bridges I've seen on my adventures.

I was also lucky here, as the weekend that I was here was also the weekend of a street festival featuring music and dance and a bunch of other things (including a nude model in the middle of the street, no pictures though, this is a family blog).  I saw a jazz band of old timers that was quite good, a well as a modern style big band that I think was either the police band or military band, but I am not totally sure which one.  They were very good, but in that modern style that I'm not a huge fan of.  There was also a swing-salsa battle during the event, and I have to say that the swing people kicked the salsa people's little wiggling behinds.

Soon I was off to Prague.  This was an overnight train through Austria, and this train was really, really, really nice, like a 4 star hotel.  It cost about the same too.  Private berth, washbasin in the room, power outlets, everything one could want on a train.  I got to Prague, checked into my hotel, and went for a walk.  Prague is a very nice, very touristy city.  I only had one day there, so I tried to get as much in as possible.  Of course, the most famous thing about the Czech Republic is the beer, so I tried that.

The buildings are also quite impressive, from the Charles Bridge, to the Astronomical clock, to the Gothic Palace, and many more.

One thing I really liked about Prague is the music.  There is music everywhere.  Street music, classical concerts in churches, jazz bands on the bridge, everywhere.  I will definitely go back someday to explore this facet of the city in more depth.  Hopefully with one of my instruments in tow, but now that I've started to play harmonica, carrying an instrument around is a lot more simple.


After Prague I went back to Stockholm to get my stuff, then went to London.  I don't have any pictures from there, but I did do a lot of dancing and catching up with old friends.  I taught a few classes for Simon Selmon's groups and they seemed to be well received, and caught some live acts including the swing night at the famous 100 Club, and what seemed to be "musical theater night" at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.  The last I went to with a great dancer from Australia named Candy and the people their thought we had been dancing together for years, when actually we had just met about 3 hours earlier.

London done, I got on the plane to go back to the states for the first time in some 4 years.  Now I'm back...more to come on that soon.

Extreme Kiev

So my stay in Kiev can mostly be characterized by doing some "extreme" sports. I did ATVs one day and wakeboarding another day, with Anna and Natalie. A short video here of my most successful wakeboarding experience:


I also did the requisite sightseeing, including the Botanical garden, and the building with all the animals on it pictured here.





















I also saw some interesting scenes of Kiev. Something I prefer to do while traveling is to see parts of the places that I am that aren't really listed in the guidebook. Below is one of the native creatures of Kiev, the hedgehog. I had never seen one before, but they are apparently all over the place, this one seen after the outdoor dance on Tuesday night. Also featured here is a picture of one of the statues that adorn hidden backstreets in Kiev, this one is also a Hedgehog from a famous Soviet era cartoon called "Hedgehog in the Fog."




















One thing that I need to note about Kiev. It has the highest percentage of beautiful women of any place I've seen in the world. It seems like one in five ladies walking around is just stunningly gorgeous. Of course, the problem is they mostly have that ultra serious and dour look on their faces like the world hates them and they hate it back, which detracts quite a bit from their overall attractiveness. I really prefer a smile.

Also, the food here is great. Tasty and cheap (almost China cheap). I ate a lot of "Chicken Kiev" while I was there. Also, the staple of a budget European tour: Kebab. Less than one dollar for a big wrap of chicken and veggies.

I left Kiev on the train to Budapest. This trip was a full 25 hours long, including a 6 hour stop at the Hungarian border to change the wheels out and do passport control. Apparently, during Soviet times, the USSR used different train track width from other countries, so as to prevent invasion. What that means today is they have to change the wheels on these cross-border trips. They pick up the train with big cranes, and drop (literally, it is quite jarring) the train on the new wheel base. This takes quite a long time. Fortunately, there was a single working power outlet on the train that I was on, so I was able to recharge my laptop after it ran out, so the time went by pretty quickly with watching movies and such.

Now I'm in Budapest. Off to dance in a bit...see how things go.

Lithuania

I just finished my week in Lithuania. The first thing that has to be said about Lithuania is that it is one of the most beautiful countries I've seen in my life. The landscape is simply breathtaking - green and clean, and with beautiful architecture. It is also cheap. Not Vietnam cheap, but something around China cheap. Vilnius isn't the most well cared for city on earth, especially compared to some place like Stockholm, but in a way the aging city has an appeal. There is something nice about the occasional weed growing through a sidewalk crack. It actually reminds me of home (El Cerrito).



In addition to the beauty of the place, the food is quite good as well. I was so busy shoving it in my face that I didn't take the time to take any pictures of it. Anyway, its good. You should try some.

I took a short trip outside Vilnius to a town nearby called Trakai, which is noted for its lakes and Gothic castle. Here is an example of the beautiful Lithuanian "Architecture." We took a pedal boat out on the lake surrounding this castle. The water was cool but not cold, so it was quite nice to put your feet in, and the water was quite clean too.

Afterwards, we had some meat pies that are traditional for the area and some local beer, which was "quite not bad."

Other days were much the same, relaxing and enjoying the city and the company. Did some dancing on Sunday and Monday, but the dances were always on hard cement and my knees did not like that so much.


Now I'm in Kiev, Ukraine. Check back in a few days more more info on that.

It has been about a month since I sat down and made any further record of my travels. I'm currently on a bus from Riga in Latvia to Vilnius in Lithuania. It's a 5 hour ride, and amazingly, there is internet on the bus. Technology just keeps on advancing...

First thing to update on, Herrang:

Herrang went well for the most part. I was one of the Week 3 party organizers, and it was a big job that took a lot of time and energy but it was worth it in the end. The theme was Superheroes, and I was working with Robert Klingval who is a crazy Swede, and a great guy to work with. People had been telling us for weeks that the party was going to be the best party ever, and so we had a lot to live up to, but I think that we did a great job in living up to the expectations. We had a comic book storyline going on, here is a basic summary.

Supervillians interupted a Superhero conference and captured the great Dawn Hampton, and they were using her energy to fuel a device that would put and end to good dancing forever. Superheroes had to disable the device by overloading it by dancing near it. At the end there was a showdown between the heroes and the villains featuring the one man dance with Superman (Lennart Westerlund), Invisible man (empty space), and Batman (Daniel Heedman); then little Oswald and Emi from Barcelona dancing poorly until Oswald got angry and ran offstage where Pep came in in green body paint as the Hulk and finished the dance; finally Kevin St. Laurent as Captain Swing and the rest of the Killer Dillers as the villains doing a fantastic "Aerials Battle" fight choreography; followed by the rescue of Dawn Hampton who did her Bhangra number and destroyed the device and saved dancing.

It was indeed the best party ever...

Some bad things happened though in Herrang, Isabelle and I had a falling out that is probably not recoverable from. It's a pity, but these things happen in Herrang. I'm not going to go into details, but needless to say there are multiple sides to every story.

Week 4 was Comp and Show classes with Johanna, which were a lot of fun, but hard work. Not quite as much work as 5 years ago when I did C&S the first time, but still good. One class was nothing but swingouts, and that night at the social dance I couldn't do anything but swingouts, which was kind of funny. My muscles just wanted to keep going with them.

After Herrang was over, I spent almost a week in Stockholm, then went down to Gothenburg in southwestern Sweden for the Gothenburg Lindy Exchange. It was a good event with a lot of live music. I played with the local band on the Saturday late night event, and many people said it was the best part of the event, so I'm glad to have been a part of that. I also did some DJing at the Sunday Lindy in the Park, at least until it was cut short by rain.

I returned to Stockholm, and the next day I got on the boat to Riga. It is a nice cruise ship that takes a leisurely 16 hours to cross the Baltic sea. I ran into Helena and Manuel, who are dancers who also happened to be going to Vilnius, so that was nice to have some people I know to hang out with. I also met a crazy Russian guy named Vanya who was my roommate. I should have known better than to say yes to his question, which was, of course "Do you want to drink with me?" The rest of the night is a drunken haze which involves some crazy lindy hopping to pop music with Manuel, and trying to play clarinet at 2am on the deck of the ship. Morning wasn't too bad though, except for a general lack of sleep, and that brings us up to where we are now...on the bus to Vilnius.

Jam with the Carling Band

Last night I had the pleasure of jamming with the Carling Family band, which was a great treat since they are some of the best musicians I've ever seen. It's quite tough to sit in on the early dixie style jazz that they play without some prior practice, but I think I held my own pulling down bass lines on my Bari. It's also hard to take solos when juxtaposed against such great musicians, so I felt my playing was rather pedestrian, but people have had generally good comments so I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought.

Hope to do more while I'm here...