Two from Caetano

from Caetano Veloso's memoir Tropical Truth

[Rogerio Duprat']s tireless and unconventional intelligence had become legendary. Equally legendary was his passion for a young woman--Anecir, Glauber [Rocha]'s younger sister. It was said that he would stand before her door in the Barris neighborhood for entire nights in mute serenade.

The most envy-inducing part of Caetano's memoir is his descriptions of the unique artistic milieu that surrounded him. Caetano took this group of voluptuous ironists with him from undeveloped Bahia to bustling Rio, then into exile in London.

Someone like Duprat should be part of every rock star's entourage: a suffering intellectual, at once cocky and fragile, capable of a "serenade" without doing any singing or even opening his mouth! And all in a neighborhood named after the guy from The Gong Show.

This group of youths in their barest underwear, not knowing exactly what was happening to them, thrown into a cell like so many loaves of bread in the oven...

Caetano is humble enough to pull off this sudden and terrifying comparison to a concentration camp. He was kidnapped by Brazil's military dictatorship in 1969 and held without trial for two months. The experience recounted in his memoir is essential reading for those interested in totalitarianism, dissent, Brazil, reality-as-just-another-dream, and prison sex.

The chapter covering this nightmare is hilariously named "Narcissus on Vacation."