Happy 2007!

Three hours to go, and it's time to look back on a fantastic year that saw the continuation of our Primavera, with more members, more gigs, more fun and more ear damage.

Thank you all very much for a great year, and I look forward to making our Samba School even Bigger and Better in the next year!

Happy new year!
Remko

Feedback from yesterday's gig

Thank you all again for a great evening yesterday, and of course for the nice card (yes Gail someone reads these things) and even nicer whiskey.

We sure made an impact that night, and today at work we are receiving many calls from customers who were there that were absolutely amazed! Also the Rydges staff approached me after the performance, asking me about possible future gigs.

So well done everyone!

On a final note, happy holidays everyone and we'll see you back on 11 January (unless we get a gig before that)!

For Gail...

I laughed when I read this and had to think of Gail...

Flamenco Night - Tapas Orders

Hi all!

For those who are coming to the Flamenco night this Friday, I may have forgotten to mention that you may be able to preorder some Tapas snacks (small Spanish tasty snacks of various descriptions) to have on the night. These cost $4 each and are sourced from a notable deli in the region.

The options are as follows:

1. Tortilla (Potato omelette)
2. Patatas al ajillo (Potatoes cooked in parsley and garlic)
3. Pan con aceite y tomate (Woodfired bread slightly toasted and topped with olive oil and crushed tomatoes)
4. Gazpacho (Tomato based soup served iced)
5. Chipirones (Calamari cooked with garlic)
6. Pulpos marinados (Grilled marinated baby octopus)
7. Aceitunas con almendras (Olives stuffed with almonds)
8. Aceitunas variadas (Mixed olives)
9. Chorizo (spicy sausage)
10. Jamon Serrano (Spanish mountain ham)
11. Queso Manchego (Spanish dry cheese from La Mancha)
12. Montadito salchichon (Petit pain filled with melted cheese and salami)
13. Montadito salmon ( Petit pain filled with melted cheese and smoked salmon)

If you need to order, you can call Stephanie (3201 1261), myself (0407 730 569), or tell Cedrick or myself tonight at the gig.

Grasias!

Details for Thursday - Rydges Southbank

Late notice (9am Thursday): I have just been asked if we can play a bit earlier. So if you could be there before 6.30pm, that would be nice. I realise not everyone will get this message in time...

The final gig before Xmas will be this Thursday, 14 December, at the Rydges hotel, Southbank. We will play from 7.00pm - 7.15pm at the rooftop terrace, level 12, and afterwards have a couple of drinks to finish the year!

Please meet 6.40pm at the bar at the ground floor. Paul has kindly agreed to organise everyone, call him on 0427 753408 if you've got any issues. I will be playing with the Jason Machado trio till 6.45pm, and will come down to get you all after that.

Dress code: green shirt, white pants. Brian, could you please play 2nd surdo as Melanie can't make it that night?

Toasted TV - Thank you

A big thank you to all of you who played at MovieWorld yesterday for the recording for Toasted TV. I had lots of fun, and I hope you did too. It was amazing to see how many of you are willing to lie, cheat, or take annual leave to be able to be there. Thank you very much!

This will be broadcasted on Ten on Thursday 4 January, about 7am in the morning (check your TV guide closer to the date).

I look forward to hearing the stories about the rides for those that stayed the afternoon!

Note I will use some very advanced face recognition software to determine if anyone didn't smile enough. The non-smilers will be banned from performances and will be required to sit on the floor behind the shaker section during rehearsals!!!

End of year Gig!

On Thursday 14 December I'm playing with the Jason Machado trio at a Xmas function for the company I work for. As this overlaps with our rehearsal time, and because this would be the last rehearsal for the year, I thought it would be nice to have a guest appearance of the Samba School as well at the end of the function, and after that we can all have a drink before we go on Xmas holidays. Green shirts, white pants please!

Please register for this gig here.

Note the first rehearsal in 2007 will be on 11 January, in the Polish Club.

Details for Toasted TV

On Monday, please be there at 7.50am: "Please meet us at the security boom gate which is 40 metres to the right of the main gate of Movie World. We'll meet you there, and then probably go in the front entrance with the drums."

Remember: pink & green outfit!!!

Angelo's Xmas party

During this party, on Friday 8 December, the answer to the question "who is Angelo?" will be revealed! Please register here!

Please note that Angelo has offered to let friends of the samba school in for $10 at the door rather than $15 if they want to attend the Groove Brazil party (obviously the bateria won't pay to attend). Could everyone bringing a guest/guests to the party please let Paul know on Thursday night?

Location: East Brisbane State School Hall, Cnr Wellington Road and Stanley Street. Free dance class 8.30pm-9.30pm. Dance party 9.30pm - 1am.

Tango Four Gig

Tango Four will be performing at Bemac tomorrow evening Saturday 2 December. Starts around 8pm and tickets cost $16. Would love to see you there! Should be a good night!

Ciao for now
Nicki

Channel Ten contacted me, for their kids show "Toasted TV", they would love to do an episode on the Samba School. It will be an 8 minute special, and would take about 2 hours to film, probably from 8am-10am.

Sounds like a lot of fun, however it is on a working day and I'm aware a lot of you would find it difficult to make it. However, let's see - so please register asap!

The last Polish Beer & Vodka night!

This Friday, we'll have the last Polish Beer & Vodka night! Grazjina is leaving the Polish Club in December, so let's give her a loud farewell! Please register here!

Who's going to Woodford?

I'm going to be at Woodford on the New Year's weekend - Saturday 30th, Sunday 31st, Monday 1st. Is anyone else going to be up there at that time? It would be great to share the fun. I've booked a tent in Tent City so I can have a bit of private space, and not keep people awake with my snoring. :) :)

Monday night is the big Fire Event, which veteran Festivillians will know is Not To Be Missed. I plan to try and get into the lantern parade. Anyone else up for this? Its an enjoyable way to experience this wonderful event. The bonus is that you don't have to fight for a scrap of space amongst the spectators on the hill at the ampitheatre! If there are some of us up there, we could do this as a group, I think it would be a special way to celebrate the start of the new year together. And afterwards I plan to go to the Blues Tent, the Kingdom of Silly Dancing.

Interested? If you don't want to put a comment here, you could email me at pkg18@hotmail.com

Hugs

Patty

Denis & tonight's rehearsal

Tonight is the last rehearsal before Denis commences his great Cuban adventure!!! So please come to tonight's rehearsal and let's see him off in style!!!

The great Primavera photo and film initiative

Over the last 4 years, we have played at close to 50 events, and have done almost 200 rehearsals (scary!). A lot of people have made a lot of pictures and even films, and it's time to start a good archive of this, for our own purpose, but also as a source of media pictures we can use for promotion.

So, I need your help to gather as many pictures as we can! Here is the high-level plan:
1) 1-Nov till 12-Nov: have a look around at home and start collecting all your pictures. Do not send me anything yet at this stage;
2) 5-Nov: I'll make a list of all the gigs and will post information about this. I'll then make some instructions on how to put your pictures on CD(s). If you want I can supply blank CDs;
3) Early Dec: I collect all the CDs and put them in one big archive. I've got some good archiving software that I purchased for this;
4) December: We'll do some classification (probably a 1-5 star rating of each picture). That way we can easily find the best pictures;
5) I'll give everyone a CD with the best pictures, OR I post them on the web somehow (to be decided).

For people that have film footage (I think that's Paul, Patty and Dorian), please email me a list of what you've got as soon as you can.

Flamenco Fiesta - 15 December

HOLA SAMBISTAS,

Why not letting your adventurous side drive you all the way to Ipswich (also known as the Outback of Brisvegas) to watch Stephanie, Erin and the other students from Henua Flamenco perform for the end-of-year FLAMENCO FIESTA ON FRIDAY 15TH OF DECEMBER??

A great opportunity to enjoy some Flamenco Dancing and to have a go with some Jaleos (improvisation, or jamming) and Sevillanas in a Spanish atmosphere. Tapas and Sangria available (we could get a bull but no bullfighter...)

Where? North Ipswich Bowls Club - Cnr Pine St and Canning St - Easy access and parking
(Come on, it's only 35min from the Capital!!)

When? From 6:30 (show starts around 7:15)
(We know it's still Siesta time in Spain but guess what, we're not in Spain!)

Entry : $7 - Family : $15 - Children U12 Free and Welcome!
1 complimentary drink - Tapas are not included but they will be real Spanish tapas (tiny price, snack size, great tasty imported produce from the recently opened Ipswich Deli)

No Dressing Code but... NO PINK AND GREEN POLYESTER (THAT'S ENOUGH!!). Just kidding, wear wathever you want, although character shoes help with the dancing... And please feel free to bring Guitarras, Cajones and other Castanuelas for the Jaleos.

Erin and I will be selling tickets on Thursday!!

Cheers
Cedric

OXFAM gig tomorrow

Please note tomorrow's OXFAM gig will start at 12:45 at Queen's Park, opposite the casino. Please be there by 12.15pm, wearing a green top and white pants.

For those that haven't confirmed their attendance, could you please do this asap?

Green Tee Shirts

We need as many of the green tee shirts to print as possible, if you have one either drop it off at Miki's or give it to some-one who is coming to the tee shirt printing fest.

Tee Shirt Printing this Thursday 26/10/06

All welcome.
T shirt printing – Gail has screens and paint
7:00 Thursday – 26/10/06


Bring: T shirts (white pink or green)
Finer stiff paintbrushes to do any detail
Hair dryer to dry paint

Class cancelled Thursday 26 October

Sorry, I again have to cancel the class this Thursday. I hope to see you all again on 2 November!

Class cancelled Thursday 19 October

Please note I have to cancel tomorrow's class because of a plethora of gigs... sorry!

Oxfam gig

We have been invited to play at an Oxfam event in Brisbane City on Saturday 28 October! Please register if you want to play at this one.

Journalists...

This is what happens if a journalist just has a list of standard questions and summarises answers without giving any context....

Indy details

Finally we got some details. Unfortunately it looks like there is no rental bus available so it looks like we've got to do car pooling. Please comment on this post or email me if you need a lift or if you have seats available.

Parade Time: 7.00pm to 7.45pm on both Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October

Change Room:

Surfers Paradise Management Office

Level 3, Surfers Paradise Transit Centre,

10 Beach Road, Surfers Paradise

Driving there:

We have been advised that we need to arrive at Surfers Paradise Management Office at 5pm. I know that will be challenging for some because of work commitments. At least try to be there, and certainly be there well before 6pm. You will be able to park for free at the "Bruce Bishop Carpark", which I believe is the carpark at the Transit Centre. Please take a ticket as normal when entering the carpark, and then we will get it validated by Surfers Paradise Management on the day. Please make sure that you give this to me once you arrive.

If you are driving down, just a helpful hint from Tarcisio, most of the roads into Surfers Paradise will be closed. The best route to take is the Smith St exit and go through the back of Southport (Ferry Rd) and Bundall (Bundall Rd). This will bring you out at the bottom end of Surfers Paradise. Note from Remko: in the past years, I had no problem getting into surfers paradise using Thomas Drive. However, as the change room venue has changed, it might now be easier to take Salerno Str.

After Roma Street

Here's a few photos I took after our gig at Roma Street.






Brianzilla needs a snack to keep up his strength.


MY surdo may not be a ****ing table, but SOMEBODY'S is. :) :) :)



















I've been to Bahia! Nyah Nyah!



















I'd kill for a bloody beer. What's she smiling about?














Yeah but, no but, yeah but, no but, this shirt is so much COOLER than shiny polyster!















Nicki models the band's new uniform, to the rapt attention of the crowd.

Details for Roma Street gig

This gig is going to be absolutely massive: everyone (except for Dale who hasn't registered yet) will be playing! So it's going to be a huge display of shiny pink & green polyester...

We'll start playing at 2pm, starting from the Lake lawn. I'm there from 1pm, please be there no later than 1.15pm, as this is a parade and as always, this needs a little bit more preparation time. Refer to the official website for further details.

As I have another performance there at 10.35, and Nicki one at 11:05, my car will be full with other instruments, so I'll need some help with surdo transport - please let me know if you can help. I think I'll need two cars to carry additional surdos. I'll arrange parking spots.

Costumes: shiny polyester pink & green. I've got quite a few spare costumes which I'll bring in on Thursday's rehearsal. First come first served!

I'm very much looking forward to this!

Indy transport

Last year, we took a little bus to Indy, which was a huge success. I noticed on the gig confirmation pages that a lot of you are interested in doing this again this year - a great idea. Also a great idea to use the comments for this!

So, can I please ask all of you to log in again to the confirmation page, and for both days put a comment in if you'd like to go by bus or using your own transport. I have yet to finalise details, but I expect the bus will leave from the Polish club around 5pm each day.

Bye bye Audrey

Audrey, who has been a keen member of the samba school until she became a mum, is going back to France:

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the wide distribution, but we are running out of time and very busy at the moment.

So, the time has nearly come. We are leaving sunny Australia in 10 days.
To all our "ozzie" friends, thanks for everything and take care. This is not a definite good-bye as we will definetely stop by on our way to New Zealand in the future. We want to see all those babies growing and all those new babies yet to be born....

To all our friends in Europe, we are coming back!!! We'll be on the French soil from the 21st of October, this year... So we will have to catch up at some stage soon. We'll catch up with everyone once we're settled in France.
So many news babies to meet too! ;-)

We'll still use the same email addresses and will let you all know once we have an address. We can't wait!
Loads of love
Dominic, Audrey and Angelique

We'll all miss seeing her, but fortunately she'll still be contactable via email.

For those with music in their fingers..

Hello again

Anyone who wants to come and have a yarn and a bit of a jam tomorrow (Saturday), please meet us at:

New Farm Park
1:00-2:00p.m.
near the gazebo somewhere
bring instruments if you can

(Parking best in park or at powerhouse)

Hope to see you there!

Jammin' in the Park

Hi all!

Some of us were talking about meeting up this week anyway, despite samba being cancelled, to play and just hang out. We talked about doing samba Thursday night somewhere else, but then I realised most of us don't have our instruments, which would be a bit difficult.

What I was thinking was that if people are free, we could meet up this Saturday for a picnic and jam in the park (samba and otherwise). We could bring a plate of food and something to drink and just share. People could bring whatever instruments they have, or want to bring, and we could share them too!

I have done this sort of thing before in New Farm Park and never had any problems. How is New Farm Park for a location?

This is a suggestion, so what do you think? Can you make it? What is a good time? Maybe about 11a.m.? (Hopefully the weather will be fine.)

Taiko workshop and concert

For those who happen to be around UQ at St Lucia:

A Japanese drum performance and workshop will be held on Monday, October 9. Members of Fugaku Taiko from the Shizuoka Prefecture will hold the drum workshop between 1-1.40pm in the Student Union Forum before a free concert between 2.30-3.30pm in the Abel Smith Lecture Theatre.

Contact Information
Name:	Dr Tomoko Aoyama
Phone:	3365 6350
Email:	t.aoyama@uq.edu.au

Special note for Dale: Please be careful Dale, this is a university location, so failure may ooze out from under any door

No rehearsal on 5 October

Please note I will be on holiday next week, and therefore the rehearsal on 5 October is cancelled.

See you again on 12 October! Note we've got great gigs on 15, 20 and 21 of October, so the rehearsal on 12 October is going to be very important, so please try to be there. Also, please review your attendance for these gigs on our members site.

Old video of Denis

I found this old video on the Internet, with Denis playing drums as he always does: with passion and motivation.



Denis is the drummer on the left...

New (rescheduled) gig: another beer and vodka night!

Last week I was asked if we were available on 15 September for yet another beer & vodka night. Not realising I already had commitments that day, I accepted, as these are great nights where, besides performing, we have an opportunity to have a chat and a beer (and a vodka!).

When I told the Polish Club on Thursday that we couldn't make it, they decided to re-schedule the night to the next day, Saturday 16 September, as they really like us there. So, check it out in the members area!

Also, thanks for another great gig today at the Polish spring festival. Are we the most Polish Brazilian Group in Australia?

Fidels party

Thank's for a great party on the 26th. everyone
Glad we only had the one gate crasher, a Cuban dissident looking for a match.

New gigs: INDY

Just a quick heads up: we've been invited to play at Indy again on Fri 20 and Sat 21 October. With the Roma Street Multicultural festival the week before that October is looking great!

More details later...

Brian's party - Saturday 26 August

Brian's party is at Denis's place at 14 Eckersley Street,Tarragindi on Saturday eve the 26 around 7pm to celebrate Fidel Castro's birthday, B.Y.O drinks.

All welcome but not the whole world. Non cigar smokers welcome.

PS: in addition to the picture to the right, here's a picture of Castro smoking a cigar at very young age.

Thank you

Thank you all for a great evening yesterday during "A night in Rio". Specifically, Mishel asked me to thank each and everyone of you for making the night a huge success. From my point of view, I think our performance was 'short and sharp', an explosion of energy exactly how it's supposed to be. I'm proud!

I have included a picture of the award that was handed out at the end of the evening.

Performance - A night in Rio ( Sat 19 August)

We have been invited to play at Mishel and Gaspar's Latin party "A Night in Rio", on Saturday evening 19 August in our own Polish Club.

The party starts at 8.30pm and goes on till late. I don't yet know at what time we play but it won't be before 9.30pm I guess. More info about the party on the Ipanema Dance website.

Please let me know if you can play through our new gig confirmation system.

Gourd Trip

Due to popular demand, another gourd hunting expedition has been organised for this weekend - Saturday. Please see attached details for the gourd farm. All interested parties should meet up in Toowoomba at a time and place to be arranged and we can continue as a convoy from there.


they are open 9-5 Sat or Sun


Danish Flower Art
New England Highway
HighfieldsQLD 4352
Australia
07 4630 8211

Costume Update!

After several weeks of collaboration, the costuming task force has come up with several options for the highly anticipated, flash, new performance costumes. Thankyou to everyone who offered their ideas, and thankyou for your continued enthusiasm for the project. We’ve released a couple of the preliminary designs for your perusal. We’ll keep you informed as the project progresses.

'A Touch of Tango'

Two tango gigs:

This Saturday’s (July 29): Tango gig (with Nicki playing Cello) at Wellers Hill Sports Club in Esher Road? Music and dancing start at about 8.15pm. Tickets are $15.

and

Sunday, August 6 – 5:30 p.m.

TANGO QUATRO
Tina Marsden - Flute
Evalyn – Cello (Nicki can't make it)
Pablo Boccassino - Piano
George Stanton – Double Bass

Fancy a dip or two on a relaxing Sunday evening? Tango Quatro bring South America’s music to life at Le Classic Restaurant! Enjoy a spin around the Tango’s history dance floor, spanning over a century of music from Argentina and Uruguay. Relive the days of old, and witness Tango music’s evolution through to modern times. Tango Quatro’s repertoire encompasses classic Tango melodies of the ‘golden age’ of world renowned singer Carlos Gardel, to the brooding and sinuous traditional Argentinean Tango rhythms, and the virtuosic melodies of Astor Piazzolla.

$55.00 per person (dinner and concert inclusive)

Ph: 3397 5544 to secure your table booking

Life For My Dreary Walls

Calling all happy snappers and seasoned samba photographers!

As some of you know, I have recently moved! My house warming is still some weeks off (I'll let you know when), but for the time being I'm trying my best to settle in. The walls of my new abode are very cream and I hope to add splashes of colour using images from Brisbane Samba School gigs as well as from our trip to Brazil!

If you have any photographs you would like to share (I hear there were some pretty good Pride photos), could you please let me know and we'll work out the best way to transfer them. I am especially interested in Brazil photos as the colours are incredible (and nostalgia has well and truly kicked in).

Please contact me on my brisamba email address, or at Thursday night rehearsals.

Cheers!

Claire

Party Player

Oh yes I will be playing at the party.
Have to post here as I cannot remember my password but this pipe does remember it.

Performance - Bumba meu boi (Sun 30 July)

We have been invited by the Brazilian Association of Queensland to play during their "Bumba meu boi" party on Sunday 30 July. Bumba meu boi is a brazilian folkloristic festival with African, Indian and Portuguese influences, with a central theatrical performance.

The general plot is as follows:

Catrina, goddaughter of the local farm owner, is pregnant and feels a craving to eat the tongue of the best boi (bull) on the farm. She cajoles her husband, Chico, into killing the beast. When the dead bull is discovered, several characters (caricatures drawn from all levels of society) do some detective work and finally track down the perpetrator of the crime. Chico is brought to trial, but the bull is resuscitated by various magic incantations and tunes (read: the Brisbane Samba School). A pardon is granted, and the story reaches its happy ending when Chico is reunited with Catrina. (from Lonely Planet - Brazil)

The party starts at 2pm, and the actual play around 4pm. We will play during the play for about 10 minutes, and later we'll do a 'normal' performance as well.

Address: 70 Murray Street, Wilston. More about the party here.

Please let me know if you can play through our new gig confirmation system.

Announcing the new gig confirmation system

Some of you might not realise this, but every time we have a new gig I receive at least 30 emails that I have to read and summarise in one list so that I know who's coming. But no more! I'm proud to announce our new gig confirmation system. It's easy as 1 - 2 - 3!

• 1 - Login to the members area of brisamba.com, using your username and password, then click 'upcoming gigs'. Or just follow this link.
• 2 - You'll see a list of upcoming gigs. Click on the gig you want to have a look at.
• 3 - You'll see the details of the gig, including date, time, and further details. You'll also see a list of all members, and you can confirm if you'll be there or not by ticking the box, even leaving a comment if necessary. Finally, click the 'Update' button at the bottom, or just press Enter.
  

It's that simple!

This will save me heaps of time, that I can now spend on other and hopefully more creative tasks within the samba school. So please use this system, post a comment to this post if you have any feedback, issues, problems, or send me an email if you've forgotten your password (if you can't remember your username click here).

Info for new members

This post contains information for new members that recently joined the Brisbane Samba School "G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera". I will also update this section as new facilities become available, so have a look every now and then and you'll always be up to date!

• Each Primavera member has his/her own email address: firstname.lastname@brisamba.com. All email sent to this email address will be forwarded to the email address you gave me. I have a mailing list with all these email addresses which I use to send out important and urgent information to all of you.
  
• Each Primavera member has a username and password to gain access to the "members" area of our main website brisamba.com. Your username is firstname.lastname and you'll receive your password by email. The members area also contains our gig confirmation system which you'll need to let me know when you can play at our gigs (or not). The gig confirmation will shortly be replaced and be integrated with the new website.
  
• The samba school has its own blog at brisamba.blogspot.com. Of course you knew this already as you're reading this message now! The blog is being used as the main communication between me and the Primavera members, and between the members themselves.
• On the blog, you'll be able to comment on existing posts, or publish a new post yourself. You'll need to log in to Blogger to do this. When you become a Primavera member, you'll receive an invitation from Blogger to set up a username and password. Note this username and password are separate from the username and password for the members area of brisamba.com. Our Blog is accessible to everyone on the Internet, so please have a look at our blog posting guidelines.
• New members will receive a couple of CDs with the songs we play, so they can practice at home, learn our many paradinhas and annoy the neighbours at inconvenient times with the samba school's unique sound!
  

Please contact me if you have any questions, or if any of the above hasn't been set up for you.

Thanks, and welcome to Primavera!
Remko

Tao Drummers

Hi all,
I realise this is a bit of an awkward day but some might still be interested. We could of course all just rock up with our drums and see if we can get in via the stage door...
Tao Drummers - The martial art of noise
Thu 31 Aug, 8.00pm
Concert Hall, QPAC
$52.65 to $72.65 (inc. fees)
The Number One box office smash hit of the 2004 and 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Powerful bodies, explosive percussion and timeless ritual dating back 1000 years combine in this spectacular production created by Japan's unrivalled drumming masters. Tao have honed to perfection a form of Japanese drumming to cross all cultures.
More Info / Buy Tickets

Upcoming gigs

I am going to use this post to keep you up to date of upcoming gigs. By using the link to 'Upcoming gigs' in the right-hand section, you'll always be able to find the next gigs!

Thanks for your help

More and more sambistas are now volunteering a little bit of time to help with the samba school. Thank you very very much, now we're really getting somewhere:

• Paul, for his ever lasting enthousiasm, helping out with graphics, video, text, and now even with choreography
  
• Miki, for taking the lead in getting new costumes
• Erin, for helping out with recruitment of new sambistas
• Jayne, for looking into free advertising
  

The list will get longer...

Beer and Vodka night Friday 14 July

On Friday 14 July, we've got another Vodka night in the Polish Club. We are invited from 7pm, and there will be free drinks and discounted meals for everyone in the Samba School. Please send me an email confirmation if you want to play that night.

Dress code: black pants, green shirt

Magalenha lyrics

The lyrics for 'Magalenha', the song we did last night, can be found here! If anyone has time to copy this into a nice printable Word document, please let me know.

A unique moment

I'd like to share this unique moment with you: the Samba School being lead at high pace by an enthousiastic shaker section at Pride 2006. Well done!

New Costume

Sambistas – like a new costume?

A small working party (Miki, Tamara, Paul, Claire and Patti) has been set up to:

• Compile ideas/suggestions for a new costume for the samba group
• Use Remko’s criteria - practicality, functionality and cost - to drill down to a few choices
• Submit these to Remko and all members to see which designs are the most popular
• Undertake a complete costing of the final choice
• Organise the making of the costumes

This is a great opportunity to update our look and for everyone to have a say. We’d love to hear any ideas you may have - your feedback would be really appreciated.

In case we are accepted to play at Woodford, we’d need to have the new costumes agreed on and completed by 1 December, so we don’t have a lot of time. So let’s make a deadline for receipt of any ideas you have, to be by the first Samba Class in July - 3/7/06.

Email your ideas/suggestions to us at costumes@brisamba.com !

Class cancelled Thursday 22 June

All

I'm very sorry: I'll have to cancel tomorrow's class because of workload at my day job. After last Saturday I think some of you feel like a break anyway, so I hope this won't upset too many of you!

See you all next week!

Cheers
Remko

Upcoming Tango Four gigs

Here are some dates to put in your diaries for some exciting tango gigs coming up with Tango Four.

• Friday 30 June Wellers Hill Sports Club Esher Road Tarragindi from 7.30pm
• Saturday 29 July also in Brisbane however place yet to be confirmed
• Saturday August 12 at the Irish Club in CBD.
  

Shall keep you posted with regards to exact times.

Hope to see you there!

Nicki

Pride - I'm proud of you!

All,

Just a quick note to thank you all for playing yesterday at the Pride march and also the performance in the evening. Again, everything went really well, and I'm really really proud of what we all have achieved in Brisbane, starting from nothing and now being the loudest gig in town!

Congratulations to Marcel, Dionne, Kanae and Jane for their first march (for Jayne it was her first performance too!). Well done. Thanks to Claire for stepping in on 3rd surdo. It was also great to see Juliana playing again!

Extra thanks for Gail, Patty, and Paul for helping out with the logistics.

Nicki made quite a few pictures during the march, I'll send you the best ones soon. In the meantime, Denis wishes you a "Happy Pride Day"...

So ... what did you think? Log on to blogger and post a comment!

Update: Let's take over has a detailed report about the day, including a fabulous comment about our costumes:

"I was a bit upset about the shiny green, pink and white uniforms they were wearing, though. Don't these people realising that trapping polyesters is a cruel procedure, and that we are endangering the nylon species by over-hunting?"

Cheers
Remko

Details for Pride Gig - Saturday 17 June

Hi all ,

First performance: parade from King George Square to Musgrave Park

We have to be ready to play at King George Square at 10am. We'll play on the square, then start parading to Musgrave Park at about 10.45am. The parade will be nice and slow (we'll be leading it!) and I expect it will take about 45 minutes. Same route as last year. So we'll be ready by about noon, I guess.

• Dress code: Primavera Pink & Green for those with a costume, else white pants & green shirt
• Instruments: please collect your instrument on Thursday the 15th and bring it to King George Square on Saturday.
  
• Be there: by about 9.40 at the latest please
  

Second performance: on stage at Musgrave Park

We perform on stage at 7.10pm. This is a bit later than I thought earlier! However, we need to be ready to play a bit earlier, so everyone please be ready behind the stage by 6.30pm. We'll play for half an hour, and I'll try to make this even better than last year!

Paul and Remko will drop off the Surdos at King George Square at about 9am. Patty and Gail will park their cars at Musgrave park early that morning, then take a taxi to King George Square. Thanks for your help!!!

Cheers
Remko

The Trams of Rio

PLEASE NOTE: Tomorrow evening (Wednesday 7th) at 6pm, on the SBS program "Global Village" they will have a segment titled "The Trams of Rio". I'm hoping there might be some footage of Santa Tereza.

Wanted to let you know.

Cheers
Patty

Beading Gourds

If you follow this link you will find stuff about treating gourds, beading etc
http://djembelfaq.drums.org/v8b.htm

Woodford

All

Some of you will be even more pleased than others: I have just lodged an application for Woodford!

So, keep your agenda free from Christmas till New Year. Hopefully we'll make it for at least one day!

This is all very very exciting!

Cheers
Remko

Gig announcement: 17 June - Pride

All

The next gig will be on Saturday 17 June, when we're again invited to lead the Pride parade, and to do a performance early in the evening. Pretty much the same as last year. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that last year's gig was one of the best ever, with a great crowd.

Please let me know if you can make it by leaving a comment to this post (click on 'comments' below). Details will follow, but assume we parade about 10am, and again play around 5 or 6pm.

I'd love to have a huge bateria that day!

Cheers
Remko

Blog posting guidelines

Here are a few simple guidelines so that it remains easy to find information:

• Restrict postings to Samba School related topics;
• Don't make a new posting if you want to reply to or comment on an earlier post. Instead, use the quick&easy comment option. That way, we keep everything together and it will be easier to find information;
• Keep in mind this blog is available for the whole world to see. Try not to make too many typos, and it goes without saying to use polite language;
• Always check the result of your posting, and make sure you don't post twice
  
• I reserve the right to move or delete postings when necessary.
  

I'm still waiting for a lot of other sambistas to sign up to the blog as well, let me know if you've got any questions or need help.

Cheers
Remko

Thanks for playing at the City Hall

Hi All,

Thanks to everyone who played today at the City Hall gig. It's amazing that on a Tuesday afternoon, we manage to get so many people still playing. I know some of you have taken the day off so that you could play, I really really appreciate that! Your commitment is amazing!

I got some good feedback already. Jason, who has seen us play many times since we started, says every time we're just a bit better than the previous time. And Peter, who organised the gig, was really impressed as well. We already spoke about a repeat of this concert in the Gold Coast Art Centre (we've been there before!).

See you on Thursday!
Remko

PS: Just received this email: "Hi, I just saw you perform at today's Boy from Ipanema performance & thought you were fantastic! Could you send me info about upcoming percussion classes & performances. Thanks, Justin"

Up there for thinking...

Excellent idea, Remko. Good luck to everyone playing tomorrow!

Who's a clever bolgger then ?

Hi Remko, looks like a plan to me. I think I will bring my drum in on th bus.
Dale

A new way of sharing information

Hi all,

I'm going to use this Blog to share information with you about our Samba School, G.R.E.S. Unidos da Primavera. I'd like to use it to announce new gigs, and to give you details about where to go, what time, etc. etc.

I also like to use it to share ideas with you, and also to get some feedback from you. I have to find out how that will work though!

Wish me luck!

Cheers
Remko