Brasilianidades

Last night a female singer at the Geographer's Café sang Girl of Ipanema quite well. I was just walking past but stopped to listen. I had spent New Year's eve there and was not in the mood to stay there again. It was so pleasant listening to something so familiar in a place so far away from Brasil. There were not as many people around as last night. A thinner foreign crowd too.

I have discussed bossa nova with Wilhelm via email. He is now in New Zealand for a short time. We used to have long conversations in Cape Town, a long time ago. He thinks that bossa nova is a kind of common national heritage in Brasil besides being of course an international one (also, whoever controls the music selection in Melaka's coffeeshops and night venues is certainly fairly conversant with that heritage whether or not they know it is a heritage anchored in Brasil). It is somewhat peculiar but far from unsettling to have people know your place of origin through music and football alone (and images of unbridled fun and - it is assumed - sexuality as in Carnival footage from Rio. In fact, Carnival takes palce after Chinese New Year. This year it will be early in March).

The muezzin from Masjid Kampung Kling is now issuing the call to prayer. Of course, he does it through a loudspeaker. It is just past one in the afternoon.

Bossa nova and call to prayer in Arabic.