Friday's Featured Item

Friday's Featured Item is this delicious Pink Bombon Leather Handbag.

This sweet litle handbag is hand-woven by the ladies at Alzira's in Fortaleza, Brazil, from specially cured coloured leather strands, and is finished with sturdy pink carrying handles. The bag also features a zipper and is internally lined.

The bag is comfortable to carry and small enough to be feminine and dainty, yet also large enough to fit all your essentials and will be the perfect addition to your wardrobe this summer.


*If you are interested in this beautiful Pink Bombon Leather Handbag

Focus Brazil

The BBC World Service is dedicating Thursday 15th of May to the Amazon and The Amazon Paradox is a series of articles which will be focusing on the economic and environmental state of the region.

As part of this special day, The Beat is joined by 'Forro in the Dark', a Brazilian band who incorporate Amazonian instruments in to their sound. The distinct sound of the flute that they play - the pifano, is from the region of Cariri, in Ceara (my state!) in the north-east of Brazil. The pifano is a wooden flute made of bamboo, it resembles a bansuri - an Indian flute and is played sideways.

The pifano descends from the Cariri Indians, who believe that they originated from an enchanted Amazonian lake. They were driven out of the Amazon by another tribe, the Tupy as well as by the Europeans. They came to inhabit the Crato Region, one of the main Forro Regions of Brazil - this is where Forro music takes it Amazonian roots.

Forro music can best be described as Brazilian country music. It uses simple melodies and interesting lyrics - driven rhythm that makes you want to dance.

'Forro in the Dark' are not a traditional forro band, they bring an updated style of the music to the club-goers of New York City.

It’s well worth a listen as the group play a live session and talk about the roots of their music on The Beat – just click the links to go to the BBC’s sites, visit http://forrointhedark.com/, or go to their excellent Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/forrointhedark), where you can listen to a selection of their catchy and upbeat songs.