Ariovaldo Skrapec was a Sao Paulo record-collector I met in the late 1990s, when I moved back into the city after spending most of the 80s and 90s living abroad. We became acquainted through the Rita Pavone Fan Club in Sao Paulo in which both of us were members.
Ariovaldo was one-year-and-4-months younger than myself. He was born on 4 September 1950, a fair-dinkum Virgo all the way. His ethnicity was Croatian.
He worked as a clerk at a local-government agency but his real passion was music in its various shapes and forms.
After a while, I started seeing Ariovaldo every Saturday at the flea-market on Praça Benedicto Calixto, in Pinheiros where we were always searching for some rare vynil record. Ariovaldo sometimes acted as a record-stall attendant while its owner would go for a bite. I realized then we had much more in common than just Rita Pavone.
Ariovaldo, like me, also taught English-as-a-foreign language. He was a serious fan of the Bee Gees and most of all he enjoyed collecting hit-parade-lists. So, Hit-Parade-history was a major bond we developed. He had his own private-hit-parade he'd compiled through the years while he was growing up.
As with all lists & compilations there is a bit of bias here and a few discrepancies there - especially when one knows that certain songs have never been released as a single so they couldn't possibly qualify to enter a best-selling-single-hit-parade. But apart from that, Ariovaldo Skrapec's Hit Parade is as good as any other which have been printed at music magazines or played as count-downs on radio stations!
Ariovaldo was one-year-and-4-months younger than myself. He was born on 4 September 1950, a fair-dinkum Virgo all the way. His ethnicity was Croatian.
He worked as a clerk at a local-government agency but his real passion was music in its various shapes and forms.
After a while, I started seeing Ariovaldo every Saturday at the flea-market on Praça Benedicto Calixto, in Pinheiros where we were always searching for some rare vynil record. Ariovaldo sometimes acted as a record-stall attendant while its owner would go for a bite. I realized then we had much more in common than just Rita Pavone.
Ariovaldo, like me, also taught English-as-a-foreign language. He was a serious fan of the Bee Gees and most of all he enjoyed collecting hit-parade-lists. So, Hit-Parade-history was a major bond we developed. He had his own private-hit-parade he'd compiled through the years while he was growing up.
As with all lists & compilations there is a bit of bias here and a few discrepancies there - especially when one knows that certain songs have never been released as a single so they couldn't possibly qualify to enter a best-selling-single-hit-parade. But apart from that, Ariovaldo Skrapec's Hit Parade is as good as any other which have been printed at music magazines or played as count-downs on radio stations!
Ariovaldo had a weak heart and he knew he lived on borrowed-time. He had had an open-heart surgery some 5 years back. His appointment in Samarra finally happened on a working day. He had a fatal heart-attack on 16 August 2004, while riding home in a bus after having worked a full day. Everyone alighted at the last bus stop except Ariovaldo who remained in a sitting position for eternity.
I really miss my friend Ariovaldo Skrapec.
Ariovaldo Skrapec in plaid shirt at a Rita Pavone F.C. function in 1999. Dimitri Amorim is the boy on his left. Marta Mendes & Nancy Bragatim (*27 July 1952 +27 October 2012) plus Wilton Belintani (with glasses) are in the background.
Here's the whole picture: front row from left to right: a friend of Adilson's, Walter Teruo Tsusui (died on 16 April 2021 of Covid 19), Jorge Nova (from Rio), Ariovaldo Skrapec, Hilton Belintani, Adilson Arenas; in the backrow Luiz Amorim aka Carlus Maximus, Emilia Frantinati, Maria de Lourdes Pelaes (passed away in 2018) Marta Mendes and Doris Castro.
yet another shot at the same night where one can see Martinha (on the left) talking to Wanderlea's sister.
No comments:
Post a Comment