Carnaval is coming

Sunday night I made sure to go to Black Betty for Brazilian Beat Brooklyn. I had sent out an email* to a million people and knew that there'd be a huge turnout--there always is for any 3-day weekend.

It gave me a reminder of what it's like when tiny little Black Betty gets packed to the gills with people, some dancing, some just standing around. Some wasted drunk and making out, others just tipsy and looking for someone to kiss.

If Black Betty were that crowded every Sunday, I'd get sick of the crowds. But every once in awhile it's lots of fun. Once everyone gets dancing (because the packed dance floor will start out being half-full with "Standers"--those who refuse to dance) the energy shifts.

We become this one big dancing mass of arms, legs, hips, and the rest, with no real beginning or end. Once you've surrendered over to the fact that people will be bumping in to you (and you've got to be in the right mood to make that surrender) you can get beyond it and not care. You can rub up against people and let them rub against you. You'll know when it's OK (most of the time) and when it's some scumbag (0-5% of the time). With the scummy types, you just drift away and usually that's enough to escape.

Especially if you've got friends to escape to. And my friends were out in abundance on Sunday. They were all dancing, too. No wallflowers, them.

On February 6th (just two weeks away), Sean and Greg and going to throw a Carnaval celebration with a GOLD theme, live go-go-dancers, live percussion, the works.

For the gold theme, they're expecting metallic gold (skimpy) clothes, gold body paint, gold eyeshadow, you get the idea.

Whoever's the most golden will get some sort of prize.

And I'm going to make glitter-gold-frosted chocolate cupcakes. Now I just need to find some edible gold dust. I know it's out there somewhere...

*If you'd like to get on my email list for dancing outings (Brazilian and otherwise), send me an email (alizinha AT yahoo DOT com) with the subject line "Email List" and I'll add you.