Is It Warm or Is It Me?

Oops, I did it again. I went back to the Folk Fest to hear and see more intriguing music and I allowed myself to be sucked in by the Persian's pink bagpipes and hips. Forgive me for my weakness, for which I make no apologies.

Today I got on the Danny Train, as my friend likes to refer to himself, because he hadn't yet made it down to the festival. We parked early and easily and were in place in the second row for Capoeira Luanda with half an hour to spare and time to cruise the food booths before the Brazilians took the stage.

We picked up some candied almonds at the Oktoberfest booth and settled in for the national sport of Brazil. I was fascinated to learn that the art of the moves developed as a disguise for the Africans to practice martial arts without their colonial Portuguese masters being aware.

The restraint, the control and the athleticism of the performers literally took my breath away...and more than once. Their lithe bodies seemed to bend and hold in unimaginable ways before snapping back to normal without ever making contact with the other bodies on stage.

Picture a handsome man in a handstand position doing scissor kicks upside down across the stage. Truly the "gentle warriors" that were described and a thing of beauty to witness.

Afterwards we got Thai food from Carytown's Ginger Thai and trudged up the hill to eat lunch before seeing Otrov, a group of Croatian-American musicians paying gypsy bluegrass music, if such a thing can be imagined (and if we've got gypsy punk, why not gypsy bluegrass?). They employed five different fretted string instruments and sang in their native tongue in voices easily imagined in a tavern.

And because I'm weak and because I'd already run into three people who'd agreed that Ensemble Shanbehzadeh had stolen the festival, I took the D-Train to the Dominion Stage for a repeat performance. The MC made the comment that over the weekend, the band "has become as popular in Richmond as it is unpopular with its native government." High praise indeed.

I was gratified to hear from the female half of the couple who had hosted the ensemble earlier in the week that when she suggested that the pink bagpipe had a sensual quality to it, Shanbehzadeh openly acknowledged, "Not just sensual, sexual."

Yes well, I certainly had noticed. Just like I'd noticed other repeat female audience members besides myself today.

What a lovely hot afternoon at the Folk Fest. Perhaps I should have brought a fan.