Boomity boom

It's mid-afternoon on Sunday, a gorgeous cool sunny day. In Precita Park a block away, a lot of drumming has just started up. I recognize the distinctive rhyths of a samba batteria, and I remember that Carnaval is next weekend. Unlike the Cinco de Mayo celebration, which exists primarily as a neighborhood street fair, Carnaval is a real city-wide event. Since there are not, of course, enough Brazilians to have a whole Carnaval, people from all over the city join samba groups, make spangled costumes, learn complex dance steps or drumming rhythms, and parade for about three miles on an invariably rainy Sunday. (The whole of May might be gorgeous, but Carnaval Sunday, which is always the last Sunday in May in San Francisco, is almost always crappy.) It's a great parade, rain or shine.

So they're upwind in the park practicing, making an amazing racket.