noizemagazine - Index

noizemagazine - Spring 2008 Issue # 55 - Index

Photos courtesy of Joe Lazo
by Tom Whitman
I’m jaded. I’ve lived in LA and
New York for fifteen years, so my
“impress me” attitude is as overdeveloped
as a steroid queen’s shoulders.
But I have to admit…Rio knows
how to throw a party. And in Rio de
Janeiro, the big three are Rio Pride,
New Year’s Eve, and Carnival.
RiO PRiDE
In Rio, everyone comes out for
Pride—gay, straight, whatever.
A million people line the famous
Copacabana Beach for the parade,
which lasts for hours and is filled
with huge eighteen-wheelers outfitted
with gigantic sound systems,
topped by scantily clad boys and
Carnivalesque drag queens. Picture one
of our Pride parades minus the political
stuff, with an extra 100,000 watts
of sound on each float. It is loud. Very
loud.
Unlike in the States, the whole city
seems to be there. Drag queens
and muscle boys cavort with straight
Cariocas (Rio natives). As if that weren’t
enough, unlike New Year’s and Carnival,
you won’t run into fourteen people you
know from the States. You will, however,
meet Brazilians from all over the country,
but especially the cosmopolitan boys
from Sao Paulo, who exit the city en
masse that one weekend in October.
During Pride, Andre Almada’s The
Week Rio is the club of the moment.
The club is state-of-the-art, and has more
20