In good company, of course. Marching through downtown Caracas, February 4. (Photo credit: Luigino Bracci)
Yes, folks, it’s a new feature (hopefully to become a regular): Festive Left Fridays. In which I celebrate leftists I love, and the scenesters making new revolutions happen in creative and sometimes outlandish ways. Wherever possible, the picture will have been taken within the past week.
I got the idea for the name from Caetano Veloso, who in the 1960s was part of a Brazilian artistic/musical movement that shook up the establishment and pissed off both the right and the doctrinaire, mainstream left. Veloso and his musical collaborators pioneered a style known as tropicalism, which mixed an eclectic mass of influences (bossa nova, carnival samba, traditional Afro-Brazilian folk music, rock, pop, etc.) to create a chaotic new sound. It marked a departure from the sober politics-as-usual of the day. The larger movement became known as the Festive Left. It was merry, unorthodox, bewildering and seemingly random, because it was designed to get people thinking for themselves and to have fun doing so.
With any luck, this feature will get you doing the same, Gentle Reader. What say?
