Other Olympic Observations

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In the Rio segment of the closing ceremony, the NBC folks were *totally* lost. It was a neat thing to see Marisa Monte on that float, made to look like Iemanjá, a mother goddess in the African Yoruba religion, also worshiped in Brazilian candomblé. The problem I found with that segment is that it is typical of Olympic ceremonies: trying to be super symbolic, it loses the audience.

Anyway, I would recommend to everyone on this forum to listen to Marisa Montes singing "Carinhoso" (Affectionate) with Paulinho da Viola. The video and lyrics (translated to English) are in this page -- it is just beautiful:
http://lyricalbrazil.com/tag/carinhoso/
"Carinhoso" is a 1917 song by a composer/saxo player known as Pixinguinha -- think Louis Armstrong to grasp how influential he was.

ETA: the song starts at 1:31 in the video. Prior to it, there is historical footage of Pixinguinha, then some words from Paulinho da Viola (which literally translates to Little Paul of the Guitar) about the significance of the song. Marisa Montes says she had never interpreted it publicly, only at home and in the shower, "like all Brazilians".