Monday, May 23, 2011

CUBA CARNIVAL

Article taken from the Trinidad Express on May 23rd 2011

Cuba to host Trini-style carnival
Story Created: May 22, 2011 at 11:50 PM ECT


Cuba is paying tribute to the T&T Carnival

This year Cuba's "Fiesta del Fuego" (Fire Festival) or literally translated as the Festival of Fire, would be incorporating Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival in their annual parade, which takes place from July 3 to 9.

Derrick Lewis, founder of Island People, has already gathered 21 boxes of costumes and materials and would be formally presenting them to Humberto Rivero Rosario, Cuban Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, today. In advance of this last Friday, an informal presentation was made to representatives of the Cuban Embassy. The items are all locally made and include headpieces, costumes and fabric.

Lewis said he was "informally asked" to contribute to this year's Festival. Lewis said the opportunity to assist was an honour adding he was given short notice and was unable to contact most of the other bandleaders but hopes that they would also contribute.

Lewis said however he was not invited to be a part of the contingent heading to Cuba.

According to the website http://www.ehow.com the Fire Festival was created in the early 1980's as a theatre festival, with the intent of recognising the importance of various unique cultures. It expanded gradually to include elements of the greater American and African indigenous roots.

I would love to see how this turns out, and of course I also love that there's a potential new Carnival destination ;) I've noticed that of late Cuba has really been trying to make changes to their way of life so that they're not so isolated from the world and definitely working towards giving their citizens more freedom, choices and options. It's amazing that they have included expanding their Carnival with their other undoubtedly more pressing and 'serious' programs and I hope that their Carnival comes off spectacularly!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Power X 4 2011 CropOver Presentation

Earlier tonight Power x 4 emailed their 'special mailing list' which consists of their version of 'TLC Cardholders' (back when TLC meant something), a sneak preview of their 2011 presentation. When I first saw this email I did a double take, checked the date on the email, asked my Bajan friends if there was some mistake, because surely Px4 was not doing the same theme again. And of course even if they did more effort would be put into designing, rather than just putting different color beading on the same bra styles etc. But no...sadly this is the real 2011 presentation. Just to highlight the similarities I included some of the 2010 designs. Although the link did include pics of the headpieces, which are a step up from last year and the bikini bottoms, it was in flash player and I was unable to download the actual pics.




P.S. Early registration for PX4 starts on Monday May 16th.



2011 COSTUMES














2010 COSTUMES (Sample)









To say I am disappointed would be putting it mildly, I can't believe in this day and age when everyone else is trying to step their costume game up Power X 4 would engage in such lackadaisical designing. I mean how is it that St Lucia has a smaller Carnival yet the costumes from Red and Just 4 fun are far better than anything I've seen Power x 4 put out over the last three years?? Couple this with my less than stellar experience with them last year and I think I'm going to have to pass on playing with them again this year.

Friday, May 13, 2011

DC Carnival Updates



Rumor has it that this year the annual Friday event usually held by Gresham Entertainment will make us 'wine to d side' and get on 'wotless' ;) If its half as good as Machel was last year it will sell off!

Panisha Mas has released photos of their section in the Indulgence Mas Band. Basically you can either play in the paint section in a tank top and shorts($70) or in the pretty section in a decorated bra and your choice of boy-shorts or regular shorts ($85).



'Ice'




'Strawberries and Cream'





'Honey'


The option to play in a scaled down 'pretty' carnival costume for only $85 USD just might see me make the switch from paint to pretty this year!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Whats poppin in the DMV: May Edition




May 14th: Second Installment of Pulse Saturdays










SOCACIZE® Bootcamp
An exhilarating Caribbean Workout!
7-9pm at the TnT Clubhouse









May 28th-29th: Caribbean Wine Fest
I was first introduced to this event the summer following my junior year in college. The wine is great and the vibe is always good..it reminds me of a laidback breakfast fete. You are allowed to bring your own food into the venue and the wine is sold at $10 a bottle. Thats great for me as I usually can't make it past that first bottle lol so all-day drinks for just $10 is not bad at all!










May 29th: Soca on a Sunday
Please ignore the fact that the flyer has a different date on it, according to Facebook this event is definitely scheduled for May 29th. I don't know..maybe they're cutting costs? Reuse, recycle??

Indulgence Mas 2011




The Indulgence Mas Band has officially announced their theme AND started registration as of yesterday ($65 early bird registration til Saturday). Albeit it was done without the usual fanfare, but the photos are hott and I think I've more or less decided that this year I'll play with them again. I can def see myslf as the 'strawberries and cream' type ;) I have also decided that this year I'll be prettifying my costume so you just might see me in the paint band with eyelashes and boots lol. Don't judge me! I'm still suffering fom PCD so this is my way of spicing up my D.C. experience. You can see more pics etc in the Indulgence Facebook Group.

On another note Panisha Mas seems to have joined forces with Indulgence this year. Usually Panisha does their own paint section as well as a 'pretty mas' section but I've heard no mention of the latter. I assume its due to the whole confusion on whether there would be a DC Carnival or not but seeing as they are one of the better bands, in my opinion this is a real loss to the parade.


It seems as though despite getting the go ahead for this year next year's DC Carnival may also be on shaky ground and NOT as a result of financial issues. Rumor has it that the new D.C. Mayor does not see the point of keeping the festival as in his opinion that it is something that only the Caribbean Community takes pleasure in and not the wider D.C. Community. Doesn't sound very plausible to me, as far as I can see the city gets huge spikes in revenue to restaurants, clubs, vendors, hotels etc during this week, so why get rid of it? Something to look into perhaps...

Monday, May 9, 2011

I'm Back! Review of The Launch of Pulse Saturdays


So its been some weeks but school is out, work is manageable and I am officially done with my moving process! Now that I had some free time I decided I would break my limin fast and go to TnT Clubhouse on Saturday to take in a lil live soca via an alleged performance by Shal Marshall.

So my crew and I get to the party at around 1am and talk about shout and echo! When we walked in we literally were the party as the upstairs floor was empty, so much so that the bartender had his head on the counter takin a nap lol. But we said small thing, money spend and we WILL enjoy ourselves tonight. So said so done, I haven't had that much fun in a really long time, and there's always something liberating about partying somewhere where nobody knows you and you could get on as wild or as 'cave' as one of my friends says as you want.

As much as we had fun there were three things that bothered me about that night.

1) There was little to no real promotion of this party, I found out about it only because one of the dj's happened to be on my fbook and when he changed his pic to the flyer on SATURDAY as in the day of the party it popped up in my home feed. Now in my opinion if The Clubhouse is trying to re-brand itself and really get the venue out there they really need to step their promoting game up. I'm also not pleased with this alleged move they're trying to make from being known as 'The TnT Clubhouse to just The Clubhouse but I wont go there in this post :) As a result of this little to no promotion the crowd was small and it was really unfortunate as the dj-ing was topnotch. It was honestly some of the best mixing I've heard in a while and the dj was definitely skilled at building hype. Especially as the existence of DC Carnival is so tenuous its very important that these promoters and djs and stakeholders go 'hard in the paint' to promote caribbean culture and events so I really hope they step it up for the parties to come.

2) Its been about 4 or more years that this venue has been serving as a place to hold parties and you telling me you cant find a bartender who knows how to mix a long island iced tea??! I am a long island connoisseur and that weak drink that bartender mixed for me did not cut it at alllll.

3) And this is my biggest gripe by far.
Dear Shal Marshall, I don't care if the crowd only had 33(yes I counted) people, standing in the DJ booth while your songs play does not constitute a live performance. Last time I checked the flyer said LIVE PERFORMANCE BY SHAL MARSHALL , not 'come watch Shal relive his mic man days'. If I knew that was what it was gonna be like I would have stayed home and streamed red 97 for free in my house. It amazes me that these dj turned soca singers complain about not being taken seriously and then he would come and pull a stunt like that. And then have the nerve to go sit dstairs on the club's lower level and watch basketball, *BIG steups!* I have seen people like Ziggy Rankin sing his heart out for smaller crowds than the one in Clubhouse, and JW and Blaze give their all wherever they perform, so there is no excuse for what he did, NONE.

There are MANY more fetes to come as the DC Carnival season is getting off the ground so here's hoping I make it to Benjai in a couple weeks and that he doesnt disappoint!