Music stars shine again

August 2016

The Rio Olympics are due to begin.

We start to hear some alarming news stories about crime in Rio.

An Australian TV crew is attacked on Copacabana Beach, and their equipment is stolen.

Two coaches are mugged and robbed while walking at night in the Ipanema district.  It happens in a street just behind where we stayed when we visited Rio last year.

Three nights in a row, criminal gangs target traffic jams, holding up cars at gunpoint.  With half a million visitors to Rio, I suppose they see a smorgasbord of opportunities.

I seriously hope that the wave of crime will have calmed down by the time we visit, later this year.

The opening ceremony is on a Friday night, early Saturday morning in Australia.  I record the telecast so I can watch it at my leisure, rather than getting up at 6 am.  And on Saturday mornings I go I to my Portuguese lesson.  I'm just about to leave the house when a text message comes through from the teacher, saying that she'll be half an hour late.

Guess what she's watching?

When I get home from my lesson, I see that Enéias is posting a commentary on Facebook.  He's very excited because there are iconic music stars on stage.

The Ceremony is a celebration of Brazilian history, music and culture.  The pinnacle for me is when Tom Jobim's grandson Daniel plays The Girl From Ipanema while supermodel Gisele Bündchen struts across the huge stage.  Suddenly, I'm teary.  It's the giant photo of Tom Jobim that's getting to me, and Daniel's singing sounds very much like that of my late music idol.

Other music stars from the 1960's and 1970's include Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, all in their seventies, all elegant gentlemen and wonderful musicians.

On Facebook I continue to read the comments of Enéias and his friends, and I chime in.  It's a rare opportunity for us all to share an experience despite the vast distance between us.

Just as each night we can look up and see the same moon and stars, on this day we are all witnessing the same historic spectacle, united in emotion across the seas.

Skipping a grade

Having finished the baby comic book, I decide to challenge myself with some more reading in Portuguese.

But what shall I read?  World news?  Too depressing.  Celebrity gossip?  Too vacuous.

Hah!  Song lyrics!  I need to learn them in Portuguese anyway, and there are lots of songs that I just sing along with, not really knowing what they are about. 

These days it's very easy to "google up" some lyrics!  The language in songs can be quite sophisticated; poetic.  Lyrics also offer some very useful words and phrases, and because they are set to music they tend to stick in your brain.  I while away some pleasurable hours, translating and singing along with recordings on YouTube.

But it's books that create literacy.  Perhaps I should read some.  Suddenly I remember that last year in Portugal I bought a story book.  In fact, I had just purchased it and was walking back to the hotel, when I slipped and fell, breaking my wrist.  I was taken by ambulance for a surprise tour of the Oporto General Hospital and then had surgery when I returned home.  

I bring out my souvenir.  It's a translation of a story by the English children's author, Enid Blyton.   It is one of the "Secret Seven" series.  These were the books that got me hooked on reading when I was about eight years old.  Written in the 1950's and early 1960's, the stories feature a group of seven children who belong to a secret club.  They have a club-house, passwords and badges, and they always solve a crime or some other sort of mystery.  

How I wished I could belong to a club like that!

Last year I tried to read this book, but it was too advanced for me.  My progress was so slow, I gave up, defeated.

But now I try again.  Although European Portuguese is a bit different from the Brazilian I'm used to, the story now flows.  Instead of needing to look up every second word, I'm looking up three or four per page.  I can often infer the meaning from the context.  Some of the new words are repeated from time to time, providing reinforcement.  I'm struck by how well-written this book is, making liberal use of the subjunctive - reflecting the slightly formal, old-fashioned language of its era.

This story is familiar.  I'm back in my childhood bedroom with my adventurous friends, turning the pages to find out what happens next.

I can remember reading these exact words in English.  

It's as if I've given the correct password and gained entry to the book-readers' club.