Cape Town to copy Rio's Carnaval

Wow, hope they can make a caipirinha! And how do you kick-start the social miracle of the samba school? Anyway, South Africa has plenty of musical and dancing talent, so no worries there...

Here's the story.

For the bird(watcher)s

Sure, we're mostly about music and other forms of Brazilian culture around here. But I have met one guy who's a fervent birdwatcher. So if you're a Brazilophile who mostly thinks Brazil is for the birds, this one's for you: a downloadable booklet on birdwatching in Brazil.

New Yorker on Rio favela gangsters

This is just a few paragraphs -- you'll have to read the whole long piece in the magazine if you're interested...

Guinga engages

Guinga engages
Originally uploaded by Eric Marc Crawford

Pandeiro Resource:

This site contains a variety of key pandeiro patterns as well as video and audio demos. A great place to learn once you already have some basic technique down -- a teacher is recommended for that!

'É do Pandeiro' site

Mãe Hilda of Ile Aiye passes away

The spiritual force behind Ile Aiye died on Sunday in Salvador, Bahia. Official news story here and my photo here.

O Nosso Amor (Tom Jobim-Vinicius de Moraes) Roberto Menescal e Cris Delanno

A lovely way to start (or end) the day with a little samba from Black Orpheus...