Am I In Russia?

If I didn't know better, I could swear the locals here in Lisbon are speaking Russian. My host told me this is a fairly common reaction when one hears the Portuguese language for the first time because there are many short, staccato-type pronunciations. The host said the Portuguese spoken in the northern part of the country, and in Brazil, is song-like and sounds more like Spanish.

Of course, when I found a local who was bilingual in English, I would tease them about being from Russia. This was especially true at the Bruce show. One of the warm-up bands was a famous Portuguese act called "Xutos & Pontapes (Kicks & Kicks). Naturally, all their lyrics were in Russian, err, Portuguese. I would blurt out an obnoxious comment after each song. For example, an early song sounded like a blues number and the only word I recognized was "Maria." So when the song was finished, I said, "The name of that song was 'Maria Left Me In Minsk'." It got a few chuckles, so being the two year old that I am, I wore out the Russian joke thread until the bitter end of the 12-song set (the last number was upbeat so I named it 'Tolstoy Finally Smiles'). Naturally, no one was laughing anymore except yours truly (My longtime Probation friend, Rosa Pagala, would always say "That wasn't funny Tom, but I see you slayed yourself). I need some slack here. If you sat through five hours of warm-up bands, you'd be bored and obnoxious too.