This one is hot from the press! I am watching the carnival parade, not from a Brahma cabin like I would have preferred, but from the warm seat in front of my computer screen. Luckily, Globo is broadcasting the show live on the Internet (I suppose I could watch it on TV, but I’m actually trying to work at the same time). I’ve figured I needed to share my feelings about the school that has just finished their procession; Porto da Pedra. Grand costumes, grandiose floats and ...a grotesque theme. We were hereby presented with an exaltation of... yoghurt! Actually, not just yoghurt but milk in general and in particular, as various other dairy products have also made their way to the sambadrome. The comissão de frente, a group that opens a parade, symbolised "Lactobacilos da Folia". You know what makes milk turn into yoghurt? That’s what they were. Then came the allegorical floats; “The Milk of The Gods” to say that the heavenly drink is present in various civilisations (no joke?), through a yoghurt feast and the preferred delicacies in China (who would have known!), to “Yoghurt, from the Otoman Empire to the European Courts”. Seriously, have they run of themes for the carnival?? Other schools have decided to pay homage to famous painters, writers or other people that have somehow contributed to Brazil’s cultural growth. Themes such as important historical events or examples of cultures heritage are also common. But milk?
At the end of the parade, the commentators expressed their opinions, visibly struggling not to laugh. Someone said that their enredo was forced. Well, how much can you sing about the white liquid? Globo itself called the theme “unusual”. Surely “cheesy” would have been more appropriate.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The costumes were beautiful, the floats all glittery and sparkingly chee.. cheerful, the dancers shook their feathers sensually and all that. But as one person on the studio commented, it was all like “squeezing milk out of a stone”.*
http://g1.globo.com/carnaval/2012/fotos/2012/02/veja-fotos-do-desfile-da-porto-da-pedra.html#F375240
* é como tirar leite da pedra were the exact words, how accurate.
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