Halloooo,
Hope all well in la belle France. Over here it's beginning to look a lot like summer, after prolonged grey and drizzle, and our ailments are slowly receding, which is nice. On Saturday we went to a new café in Tatuapé with Gabi's grandma to check out their quiche, and got a complementary assortment of panettones into the bargain, then went to a fellow psychology Masters' birthday do in hip 'n trendy Vila Madalena.
My word of the week, “arapuca”, refers to a simple cage, made of sticks and twine, which is used by native Brazilian hunters to trap prey in the woods. It is also the name of an extremely politically incorrect song, written back in more innocent times and popularized by modern-day sertanejo duo Victor & Leo. The song ended up on our car iPod, and while the first thing to grab my attention were the scorching accordion runs between verses, I eventually paid attention to the lyrics and had to double-check with Gabi what I’d just heard.
In the song, the singer (or singers – I get confused whether sertanejo duos sing as one or as two separate people, which makes love songs especially awkward to listen to; but they use the singular “eu” here so let’s go with that) sets an arapuca trap by the side of the road, with the express purpose of ensnaring “pretty, and also married, women”. So far so good, although the distinction is a bit of a head-scratcher. The first chorus goes “who is it, who is it who can live in this world without money and without women?” which, fair enough, but you shouldn’t trap them in a wooden cage, right?
Anyway, the first time the trap goes off, the singer runs to see what it’s caught, and it turns out to be a “pretty woman” who “sets my heart racing”. Cue accordions. But then, in a twist worthy of an M. Night Shamalayan movie, the second time it goes off and he comes running, the trap has caught (and I quote) “a large black man” who “freezes my heart”. It’s genuinely impressive how much casual misogyny and racism it packs into a grand total of six lines of lyrics…
So anyway, “arapuca” is a kind of snare. Thus concludes the first in what will hopefully be a semi-regular educational series, where I break down the lyrics to local hits, Rap Genius-style. I also made another, trap-free compilation.
Speak soon!
