near death in lapa (not!)

went to lapa tonight with roommates conchita and erin. it was a fucking madhouse. skol had some sort of bootleg outdoor music fest there, which basically meant the entire 10 block square area was packed with beligerent cariocas and even more beligerent brits and aussies. fucking british empire. anyways, we met up with sophia, erin 2 and susana, who was at her peak carioca craziness all night long. milled around for a while and up by the escaderia we hear a loud pop (may or may not have been a tirateiro... i kind of doubt it). initial crowd reaction was a half-hearted ducking, followed by a few second lull before people started rushing down the street mob-style away from the bagunça. i ducked into a barzinho, which promptly dropped its iron-curtain of a door. had to hang out for a while til things calmed downed and i could go out and find everyone again. exciting, to say the least. then down to emporio where they were playing tired eighties u.s. dance-rock and some franz ferdinand (i think... i get them confused with a few of the other breakthrough indie bands... whatever). a heated debate followed on comparative racism in the u.s. and brasil. susana was insufferable. she loves to argues but talks and talks and refuses to listen. we even got the barkeep involved in it. he seemed to have good things to say, not that susana would let him get a word in. by the end i was ready to leave, and erin feigned illness so she and i could split. so now im sitting in the apartamento waiting for conchita and susana to make their way back here too. a recife photo slide show will be in order, i think. tomorrow ill try and post some photos of this AMAZING sculpture garden we visited there. for now im hot and sweaty and tired. im gonna try to finish reading my book, the story of lucy gault, which i've enjoyed thoroughly.