[from
Brazil via Appalachia] A fiddling boy brimming with youthful freshness and dew.
So white. So clean. Like he literally had dew drops on his skin. He was in trim
pants with no socks. His guitar collaborator was even more mystifying, a
little brown man with winky eyes and pretty lips. I decided the guitarist was
piquant –I was literally searching my mind for words to describe him. I might’ve
hated Andrew Finn except he was sort of charming. I’m always a fan of the crowd-engaging
interludes between songs. He was full of them. He started in Asheville (the
next hip destination? ten years ago?) where he established his Appalachian
fiddling foundation. He ended up in Brazil because he ‘followed a girl,’ “A Girl
from Ipanema” as he said. The second song was for an old lady in Brazil who gave
him a name based on his instrument of choice, common in Brazil to name people
based on their instrument, he said – so he was deemed “fin de violin.” Ja ja. I
was engrossed by all the genres they were shouting out: choro (Brazil’s “first
urban genre”), samba bossa nova. He explained that he had to write a song for
the violin because they’re so uncommon in Brazil. He was a nice mix of the Southern
warmth that comes with no pretension but then also had this worldly knowledge.
So I got to thinking how difficult life is when people don’t comply with stereotypes.
And how delightful? During the show, I was preoccupied by this burner-looking
couple cozied up in a corner. Deliciously decadent with smoky eyes, loose
earth-toned clothes, elaborate jewelry, odd tattoos. To say the least, they
stood out in the crowd of mostly 60 plus hippies with the obligatory gray ponytails.
I chanced to be next to burner-esque man and struck up conversation – Brazilian!
I told him I was heading there this summer (definitely ‘was’ now). A few weeks
prior, while vacationing with my kittens on the Oregon coast, I’d
met this couple. Don't judge - I was on a mission to make my kittens traveling-friendly. Mission aborted - Suave screamed the whole way home. The man told me he was in finance. I narrowed my eyes. I told them I was a sociologist. They narrowed their eyes. She was Brazilian, pale with nearly white hair - her family owns a lot of land in Brazil and goes back to the 1500s. She was a little arrogant which I like in a woman. They told me everything about themselves and Brazil, especially how great the new administration is, reducing crime etc. The "bad things" you hear about him aren't true, they insisted. I communicated all of this to the burner and he erupted into sputters and shakes - he yanked out his phone to show me pictures of Brazilian police beating a musician on the street. I think he said "fascist."
We worked it out and he ultimately recommended north Brazil, where it’s real. Andrew
Finn, you ought to see him.
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