Word: redentore
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...Janeiro is the city in Brazil that people all over the world know. They know the cathedrals and the samba clubs, the curved white strip of Copacabana beach, the spread-armed statue of Cristo Redentor on the peak of Corcovado mountain. Sao Paulo, on the other hand, is the city that foreigners don't know. They don't know that it is in many ways Brazil's musical center, accounting for 57% of record sales in the country, vs. 13% for Rio. They don't know that, with a population of 17 million, it is not only far larger than...
...Corcovado is Cristo Redentor, the huge statue of Christ with his arms stretched out that's become a symbol of Rio. It was completed in 1931, stands 100 feet tall and weighs 1,145 tons. In the base of the statue is a small chapel with a few wooden seats, a red carpet, and a marble altar with purple flowers set in vases on top. Visitors throw bills and coins on the carpet and say prayers...
...Later, as I ride in a taxi back to my R.E.M.-fan-encircled hotel, and after I pass the many multicolored billboards announcing Rock in Rio with all those pictures of enraptured Internet-connected youth, I see one sign that really stands out. It's a billboard of Cristo Redentor standing behind a huge, sweating can of Pepsi, almost like he's about to throw his arms around it. But I'm not thinking about Jesus' Pepsi just this moment. I'm thinking about how I'm gonna fit into that stupid T-shirt...
...look at Cristo Redentor I think of Catedral de Sao Sebastiao and then all those Afro-Brazilian worshipers thinking about their own gods during Christian ceremonies. I wonder if it's possible, just possible, to come to Rock in Rio, to worship at the temple of the Gods of Pop, and really be praying to wilder, more radical spirits. Or if this whole Rock in Rio thing is just another big piece of unredeemable commercial crapola and we are all going to hell anyway...
...Papa Roach fan and didn't like my sarcasm. I suddenly realize that I'm standing on top of a mountain in a thunderstorm and my only transportation down is in a steel cable car held up by steel cables. I try to keep my eyes on Cristo Redentor the whole way down...